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Abstract
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BACKGROUND As a result of the socio-economic changes, the traffics and the transportations have been increasing. According to the projection by Khonkaen Province Public Health Office, there is higher tendency for the inappropriate road traffic behaviour and the death rate during 2015-2019 and it is three times lower than the actual recorded figures. This can result in the higher costs for medical treatments for over 147 million baht a year. The accidents and the large portion of the costs are mainly due to the use of motorcycles on the roads in communities and villages.
Description of the problem The government; therefore, has officially announced its policy of "Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020" as the national agenda responsible by five major government units who have run their actions in solving the problems of traffic accidents consecutively. Several projects successfully served the units' roles and responsibilities. However, despite the success and the same objective, there has been no integration of the work procedures among the networks of those units. Khonkaen provincial governor; therefore, has issued a policy to have a safety traffic measure by establishing the "community checkpoints to reduce road traffic accidents" with the objective to promote the development of a measure to prevent the road traffic injuries in the communities of all districts.
RESULTS The results showed that, for all the 26 districts, the network leaders of each district had been promoted for higher potential. Based on the local context, district committees were formed with road safety action plan for community checkpoint operation to reduce traffic accidents. The real-time information for supporting the work operation as required by each unit in each area was processed systematically, accurately, and completely. The survey for the fundamental information, at-risk points, vehicles, environments, roads, and warning signs was conducted with welfare and financial support from the local governments and the organisations from private sector who participating in the project. All the parties concerned felt encouraged, valuable, and proud of the results. As evaluated through the one-page summary and the lesson learned from the community checkpoint operation, the project created a social tendency for realisation alert of safety road traffic behaviours which was obviously enhanced widely among the networks of all levels with the understanding of the integration of the work procedures in solving the road traffic accidents. The success of each district was found depending on the leaders' potential, the work cooperation, the team work communication, details of work procedures, and the experience of each team.
CONCLUSIONS The development of establishing the "Community Checkpoints to Reduce Road Traffic Accidents" in Khonkaen Province was found successful with support from the network leaders from each district, strong communities, and the participations of all organisations which helped reducing the road traffic accidents. The community checkpoints should be conducted with understanding, clear description of the working roles and details such as instruction for appointments and the legal protection for all the parties concerned should also be provided. The successful lesson should be enhanced and used as the model of the province and applied with other districts for creating strong and sustainable checkpoints in each community.
Abstract from Safety 2016 World Conference, 18-21 September 2016; Tampere, Finland.
Copyright © 2016 The author(s), Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions
Language: en |