A conference by a local charity, CADVA, will raise awareness on adequate road safety regulations.

Cameroon, like other countries, loses many lives to road accidents. In 2008, 100 Billion FCFA was lost to road accidents.  Some 200 Billion FCFA was projected to be lost in 2015, with some 7,000 people estimated to be wounded and disabled. About 12 people are victims of road accidents each day, averaging 4,700 victims nationwide every year since 2010.

The World Bank statistics were revealed during a recent seminar by the safety coalition, Coaliroute, in Douala. A considerable portion of those dying or injured in road accidents are children. With limited infrastructure, children work, play or live on the road. Such exposure, along with other risk factors inherent in childhood, makes them particularly vulnerable in traffic.

Some children are accident victims as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and vehicle passengers, because roads are rarely constructed with consideration for their needs. It is for reason that the Cameroon Association for the Defence of Victims of Accident, CADVA, will hold a one-day road injury prevention conference at Government Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko-Buea, in the South West Region on May 21, 2016. The goal is to raise awareness among public and para-public authorities on the necessity of adequate road safety policies and regulations that help reduce children road deaths and injuries in the country.

With theme, “Children and the Road,” the CADVA event will hold through school road safety club initiatives. The aim is to better inform and educate children on road risks as well as raise public authorities and policy-makers awareness on the necessity for adequate road safety regulations that protect children in Cameroon in particular and the Central African Sub-region in general. There will be a sketch on safe kids’ lives on the road by students and an interactive workshop on child road injury prevention strategies.