Roads closed for 5 minutes for traffic accident victims
To honor and remember those who passed away due to traffic accidents, the road from Western Central Intersection to Eastern Central Intersection was closed for five minutes at 11:00 a.m. on November 29. Ambulance and hospital vehicles rang their sirens during the moment of silence in remembrance. The Traffic Police Department declared November 29 as the Day for Safe living without traffic accidents.
On average, 15 to 16 people get injured due to road accidents and one to two people die in Ulaanbaatar every day. Statistics from the past five years show that 6,800 people have been injured and 500 people died due to road accidents. According to a WHO study on death rates from traffic accidents by country per 100,000 inhabitants world map, Mongolia is on an average scale of 20-25 alongside Brazil and Kazakhstan.
As half of Mongolia’s population resides in rural areas, there is limited care related to those who became victims of road collisions in the countryside as opposed to cities. In China, 700 people die of car accidents every day and yet, China fares better on the WHO scale than Mongolia.
In August this year, new traffic regulations were approved to minimize traffic accidents and casualties. The new regulations prohibit pedestrians to be on their cellular devices or have headphones on while crossing roads.
SAFETY REGULATION FOR CHILDREN
School busses are now required to have stickers that indicate that they are transporting children, and while picking up and dropping off children, they must switch their turning signal on. Additionally, all school buses are now strictly obliged to use seatbelts. Children that are seven and below are not allowed to be left in vehicles without adults accompaniment and children under the age of 10 are required to be in a child seat appropriate for their body mass index.
SAFETY REGULATION FOR THE DISABLED
The visually impaired must have canes that reflect light in the dark so that incoming traffic can better spot them. Like the road crossing to the opposite side of the State Department Store, pedestrian crossings must also have audio signals for the visually impaired. Traffic Law articles 2.2, 2.3, and 2.28 state that roadblocks, prohibited motor vehicles and prolonged parking prohibited signs will not apply to vehicles driven by the disabled with identifications.
Drivers that have impaired hearing must have the hearing impaired white sign in a blue square to signify that the driver is hearing impaired. Moreover, those with mental illnesses are not to cross the road without supervision of another adult.