Dominican Republic 2015 road carnage: 327 pedestrian deaths

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’sdismal record on road deaths can only be compared with its carnage in pedestrianfatalities, with 327 killed when hit by vehicles on the streets roads acrossthe country last year.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority(AMET) said the figure prompted it to launch a program to educate pedestriansand motorists, and make them aware of the importance of complying with traffic lawsto avert suffering and fatalities.

In its first stage the initiativeaims to impact more than 100,000 pedestrians and motorists, with informative leafletsand orientation.

"This educational campaignis aimed at educating drivers and pedestrians as a components support the RoadSafety project and reach all road network users with written, verbal andaudiovisual educational campaign to increase public transit safety which has spacefor improvement in citizens’ behavior," AMET said in a tweet.

It said the program seeks toachieve a safer and more harmonious interaction in public places, to make thedifference between a safe journey and a traffic accident that threatens thevery physical safety of other citizens.

"According to statisticsfrom 2015 there were 327 pedestrian fatalities and 1,114 injuries from collisions."