INTRANT claims 3,000 die every year from traffic accidents

Around three thousand people die each year in the Dominican Republic due to traffic accidents, mostly due to driver errors, said the director of the National Institute of Traffic and Land Transportation (INTRANT), Claudia Franchesca de los Santos.

She noted that traffic accidents are the leading cause of early mortality in the country, in addition to thousands who are injured, suffering and impoverishment of the families to which they belong.
“The most unfortunate thing of all is that there are premature deaths, outside of all logic, they are the product of man, mostly due to inappropriate behavior behind the wheel,” she said.

At the end of a Mass in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo at the close of the Road Week, Los Santos announced the launch of the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Unit, next year, to intervene for psychologically affected and their relatives.

She stated that next year, the institution would open an Attention Unit for the Victims of Traffic Accidents to intervene psychologically on behalf of those affected and their families.

The Unit, she said, will serve to guide and evaluate all people who have suffered a traffic accident and as a result, have been seriously injured while giving them personalized and professional attention after the fact.

“I require that we all join this effort, victims and non-victims, Dominican citizens of good, to acquire this commitment that will lead us to realize such a necessary change,” said the official.

The director spoke in honor of the fatalities of traffic accidents in the country, at the close of the celebration of the Road Safety Week 2019, whose purpose is to promote a culture of road safety, to reduce the death rate for the accident rate in the country.

De Los Santos acknowledged that “previously in our country, not enough had been done, and the necessary steps were taken to support the victims and prevent accidents, but we already have the Intrant and all our efforts to change this situation.”

The act was officiated by the parish priest Nelson Clark, who, when referring to Intrant, said that “you are the weapon of the defense of life in transit and have recently initiated a campaign to reduce this evil, using the breathalyzers. This is one of the best initiatives they have implemented.”

The priest also called for better energy alternatives to be used in transportation to reduce the effects of Greenhouse Gas emissions.