Last Sunday a bride, Tiras Tesfaye, 21, was killed on her wedding day when the speeding car she was a passenger in, unusually driven by the groom as it was reported by the state media, collided with a tree around Filwoha. This tragic episode is just one instance of a problem spiralling out of control in Addis Abeba. Such incidences of motor vehicle related deaths or injuries are all too common in the city and exact a huge human and financial toll on individuals and the public's coffer.
 

In the last nine months alone there were 261 deaths related to traffic accidents and damage to 5,281 properties, amounting to 21.17 million Br. Tiras was only one of these victims, although these are just the officially reported and recorded instances. While these numbers are alarming, considering the driving habits prevalent in the city, it is surprising that they are not higher.
 

Addis Abeba's roads have become more of a death trap than the desired efficient mode of transportation. The effects of this sorry state of affairs range from general annoyance to a disincentive for foreign workers to apply their skills in a country lacking human capital to heart-rending disasters for families.
 

The recent campaign by Addis Abeba's police forces to enhance enforcement of traffic laws, whatever the motives, should be applauded. Thumbs up for the Addis Abeba Traffic Police Department for beginning to stop motor vehicles for even minor offences; it is a step in the right direction.

Their newly found enthusiasm to enforce the laws seems to have paid-off in a modest manner: the number of deaths in the past nine months was lower by 4.7pc when compared to the same period last year as the damage to property was lower by 20.3pc. It appears that the police campaign to enforce traffic laws may be having at least a small positive effect in this sense.
 

This is very important in light of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates of injuries due to road traffic accidents in developing countries. Between one and two per cent of their Gross National Product (GNP) or 65 billion dollars is lost to carnages on the roads. The economics and public obligations alone elicit the need for a staunch campaign to make Addis Abeba's streets safer for vehicles and pedestrians alike.
 

Although the latest campaign has seen modest results to date, much more is needed. It starts from wondering why driving in Addis Abeba has become so dangerous in the first place.
 

Awareness of driving laws and regulations is glaringly low. Such basic knowledge of the necessity to stay within driving lanes, rules governing the right of way and observing speed regulations are obviously lacking if one takes even a brief glance at the manner of vehicle operation in Addis Abeba. Instead of a well controlled infrastructure, the culture seems to be more that of a rat race to get to the desired destination as fast as possible, disregarding personal and others' safety.
 

But awareness is not the most pressing issue.
 

Even if people know the rules they are apt to break them without the proper incentive to act in a more controlled manner. This only comes from stringent enforcement of laws that are designed to coax people Into behaving in a manner that optimises efficiency and safety on the roads. Notwithstanding the recent campaign, people in no way fear the consequences of non-compliance with traffic regulations.

In this sense, the under-funded and underappreciated police force deserves a small bit of gratitude for the recent enhancement of enforcement. Though the individual may be annoyed when issued a ticket for a missing headlight, the increase in social welfare that comes with safer and more conscious vehicles, not to mention a little revenue generation at the expense of someone wealthy enough to own a vehicle, makes such measures desirable.

The police force can not increase this effort on its own. More funding should be allocated for programmes specifically targeting road traffic. Likewise, funding for an expanded awareness campaign of traffic laws and costs to the society should be complimented by a more comprehensive examination period before granting a license to operate a motor vehicle. The cost of such an agenda more than pays for itself.

Just look at how the revenue generated from tickets jumped by 41.9pc to 14.9 million Br this year. In a country running huge budget deficits and with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of around 110 dollars, a kind of Robin Hood policy of taxing people choosing to operate cars, and at the same time making roads safer for them and innocent bystanders, is more than advisable.
 

The fact that police are working harder, more resources are being devoted to this pressing problem of road safety and 42pc more tickets have been issued in the previous nine months as compared to the preceding nine months, should be a little comforting as 80pc of traffic injuries occur when traffic violations by drivers are involved. This type of enforcement hits at the heart of the problem, as drivers start to feel the effects of their potentially life threatening behaviour in their pocket books.
 

Some groups are disproportionately responsible for the problems on Addis Abeba's roads as the city's close to 20,000 taxis account for a disproportionate share of accidents, according to the city's traffic police department. They work long hours in less than modern equipped vehicles.
 

However, city residents notice the atrocious driving of commercial vehicles, a group which comes in second in accident tallies, bearing the colourful logos for the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), Addis Abeba Water and Sewage Authority (AAWSA), Anbessa City Buses Enterprise and the notorious drivers from the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC). Nevertheless, it is a disservice to this editorial to point a finger solely on the state companies. Drivers from the NGO community are as reckless as those from the state sector, specific mention should be made about other drivers operating trucks and heavy duty trucks owned by MOHA Soft Drinks Industries (bottlers of Pepsi), East Africa Bottling (Coca Cola), the Chinese Bridge and Construction Company, and Sunshine Construction.
 

These groups are excessively contributing to a problem that is an economic and human crisis.

The solutions to traffic problems are embarrassingly obvious and, unlike many pressing dilemmas, offer remedies economically beneficial to all without creating the usual losers and winners that most policies have to contend with.

To accomplish this daunting task, public awareness of laws is crucial as well as proper traffic engineering planning placing lights, speed bumps and designing roads in an efficient and safe manner.

More importantly, however, the incentive to follow traffic laws can only exist if strict and unbiased enforcement is enacted city-wide. This is absolutely essential if drivers are to act in line with incentives that cause them to internalise the social costs involved with unsafe road operation, and not simply worry about the relatively smaller personal price.
 

Stricter enforcement of laws generates revenue, reduces accidents that cause damage to humans and properties alike and subsequently diminishes the strain on a publicly subsidised health system. Moreover, ticketing vehicles for insufficient safety features not only has the effect of taking dangerous vehicles off the roads until they are fixed, but inadvertently keeps older and higher polluting models from congesting roads as they are often the ones not up to par.

It may be said that these are the only vehicles that the citizens who are not super-rich can afford. But in the long-run, and for society as a whole, taking these vehicles off the road relieves congestion and pollution and will put higher demand on elected officials to develop more adequate public transport systems.
 

Though most of the actual traffic laws in the country are sufficient, there are a few a crucial regulations missing. For instance, seatbelt requirement, which reduces crash death risk by 40pc-60pc and all injuries by a similar amount, are missing from most vehicles and not required by law. Any excuse that donning a seatbelt leaves a strip of dust across the user's chest is meaningless when it could prevent hundreds of injuries and deaths.
 

Moreover, a mandatory helmet law, where enforcement of which in Thailand led to a 41pc decrease in injuries in motorcyclists, is a no-brainer.

Similarly, speed limit signs, creating awareness and then enforcement, would have immediate results as studies show that a one kilometre per hour increase in traffic speed increases the incidence of injury by three per cent.
 

The time is ripe for Parliament to act on these pressing problems as it considers mandatory insurance legislation that the industry describes as third-party insurance. The practices of developed countries should be followed as any bill passed should include a mandatory graduated premium rate scale that penalises previous accident causers with higher fees, thus creating an incentive for caution.
 

The real tragedy of road safety is that its solutions seem so apparently equitable and consequences so obviously dire. While road safety is not as popular a cause as disease, the consequences to poor countries are equally harmful. Even so, money is poured into infrastructure projects without consideration of the budgetary effects of the subsequent costs that accidents bring.

These problems are exacerbated in poor countries such as Ethiopia with a rapidly changing economy in which major cities are becoming increasingly dense, outdated cars flood the streets and the majority of people, pedestrians and users of public transportation, are at the whim of some careless people, often seemingly with the attitude that with their wealth to buy a car comes a license to ignore laws as they please.
 

In order to make Addis Abeba a safer place for residents, and to make a small dent in human loss  - as well as avoid the perishing of young lives such as Tiras - and budgetary needs, the recent successes of the police department should be followed by more action. Rarely can a problem and its solutions be so fairly and objectively considered.