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It was almost 07:00 in the morning. A young woman traveled by bicycle from Recoleta to a pastry shop where she worked. Suddenly, she was hit by a metropolitan transport bus. Emely Rojas, a young woman of just 24 years of age, ended the life of Emely Rojas in Avenida Holanda, in the Providencia commune.
Paula Rojas, her sister, was discussing the news of the day with her friends. They heard about the accident. “But I never thought she was my sister,” he told Meganoticias.
Three deaths in fifteen days
The death of this young Venezuelan put road safety back on the table. Three cyclists have lost their lives in the last 15 days, and there are already 85 deaths between January and September.
“If compared to 2019, we see a 28% increase in these fatal accidents, according to figures from the Carabineros,” says Luis Alberto Stuven, manager of road safety at Mutual de Seguridad and former Executive Secretary of the National Traffic Safety Commission ( Conaset).
Agency One According to Stuven, “factors such as changes in traffic flow and long periods of time that people were not driving” must be considered.
In that sense, it points out that people “lose skills by being long periods of time without driving.” The infrastructure would also be an aspect to improve. “Of course there is a lack of infrastructure,” he points out. “A painted bike lane, where a car can pass over it, is very different than one separated by barriers,” he remarks.
Regarding workers, Stuven recommends that companies train in road safety. “More if, due to the pandemic, they are choosing to go by bicycle,” he closed.
One reason: changes in driving behavior
Fewer vehicles on the streets, several months without driving and psychosocial effects of the pandemic could be key factors in this increase in accidents.
“There is an apparently simple effect of confinement, but with profound consequences,” explains Patricio Rojas, a social psychologist and academic at the Andrés Bello University. “As there is less traffic, a relaxation is generated with respect to the necessary attention that must be had to drive,” he added.
The specialist points out that drivers, regardless of the type of vehicle, were used to a number of different stimuli than the current scenario. In addition, he considers that “without generalizing, many drivers think that the larger the vehicle, the greater the right they have to travel on the streets and observe the cyclist as an intruder.”
Agency One Prevention
How to avoid this? According to Rojas, it is not only necessary to reinforce the idea of “defensive driving” and improve the infrastructure. Rather, an education campaign is lacking to teach all those who live on the street (pedestrians, cyclists, motorists) to respect each other’s spaces.
“This is a problem that has been present for a long time,” highlights the academic.
They ask for the Interior Minister to intervene
Civil society organizations and academics linked to the world of mobility delivered a letter a few days ago to the new Interior Minister, Rodrigo Delgado.
In it, they accused that the lack of control and the deficit in infrastructure and road education have resulted in a “public safety problem.”
“The figures are dramatic. We have 85 dead people only considering the official numbers until September. To that we must add the accidents that occur daily, ”said Paola Tapia, founder of Mujeres en Movimiento and former Minister of Transportation in Michelle Bachelet’s second government.
The text was signed by various organizations. Among them: the international organization Mujeres en Movimiento, the Fundación Conciencia Vial, the Colectivo Muévete, the Furioso Ciclistas and Fundación Emilia, among others.
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