ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News


Investment in a better traffic system should be the priority for road safety said experts at a seminar Friday.

Organized by the Bahçeşehir University Transportation Enforcement and Research Center or UYGAR the Traffic Safety Certificate Program hosted many participants from various provinces. Representatives from municipality transportation units and from highway administrations gathered for the two-day event where experts and academics conducted seminars on road safety for participants.

“As the state we tolerated the costs of failure [in road safety] but we did not tolerate the costs of preventive measures and measuring and evaluation” said Yavuz Oktay an engineer from the First Region of Highway Directorate adding that the highest cost is the cost of failure.

Accidents on the Kartal-Soğanlı road on Istanbul's Anatolian side killed 116 people in 1995 due to improper signboards and the poor arrangement of the road said Nilgün Camkesen project coordinator for UYGAR. After the necessary arrangements were completed only three people died on the same road the next year Camkesen said. Land and transportation planning are fundamental components of traffic safety the coordinator said highlighting that Turaaa often begins building projects without adequate planning.

Conducting proper planning projects is one of the crucial factors for safety as well said Oktay. Even for a small crossroad a planning project is necessary he said. Camkesen added that the multi-headed administrative structure of traffic management is an obstacle to the efficient functioning of the system.



Various problems with traffic

Participants at the seminar who spoke with the Turkish Daily News were happy to take part in the event saying they feel it will help them with their work. “There has not been a seminar like this before” said Remzi Cihan vice manager of the municipal patrol department of Küçükçekmece Municipality.

“If [the seminar] was not valuable we would not be here in this hot weather” said Hayati Gürses a representative from the western province of Çanakkale.

Gürses said the most critical solution to the problem about traffic safety is education while Cihan cited proper signboards as crucial. Fatih Gündoğan a participant from Istanbul Municipality added that Turaaa should start with stricter driving license requirements and more education. “I obtained two licenses one here in Turaaa and the other in Germany. It took me five minutes in Turaaa with a driving exam but in Germany it was 45 minutes” he said.