The Minister of the Presidency, Joel Santos, headed this Monday the Ninth General Assembly of the Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory (Oisevi), based in the country, to address the challenges of public policies on mobility and road safety.
Given all the projects carried out by the government headed by President Luis Abinader in order to strengthen road safety in the Dominican Republic, the city of Santo Domingo was chosen for the assembly, with the participation of the Ibero-American countries.
At the head of the event, Minister Santos explained the interest that the President has in reducing road accidents, while valuing on behalf of President Abinader the support of the Oisevi member nations, so that the Dominican Republic is the venue for such an important debate that seeks to save lives through joint actions.
In this regard, Joel Santos said that the country has a National Strategic Plan for Road Safety 2021-2030 (PENSV), with the aim of reducing road accident deaths by 50%, with a line of action based on strategic axes such as institutionalism, mobility, education, enforcement, care and accurate information to citizens.
During the Oisevi agenda, the executive director of the National Institute of Transit and Land Transportation (Intrant), Hugo Beras, was in charge of the inaugural conference on Road Safety Policy in the Dominican Republic.
Beras pointed out that the country is making progress in the area of road safety and that in the next few months Intrant is preparing to implement the Points-Based Driver’s License System, the Technical Vehicle Inspection (ITV) and the Traffic Control and Management Center, to add to the projects already underway, such as Road Safety Education in Public Schools, Technical Regulations for Workplace Road Safety, the National School Mobility System, the Certification of Driving Schools and the Certification of Driving Schools, Certification of Driving Schools and their Instructors, strengthening of the process to obtain a driver’s license, National Registry of Motorcycles, Restricted Access Zone for cargo transport vehicles, new license plate and the program with the greatest impact, “Safe Intersections”, all in favor of continuing to strengthen safety “as a sign of the President’s commitment to reduce accidents in the country”.
The event, which took place at the Sheraton Hotel, was attended by ministers and authorities from the transport and road safety sector, such as Pere Navarro, general director of Traffic of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior; Álvaro Gómez, secretary of the Ibero-American Road Safety Program; Ricardo Pérez, regional road safety advisor of PAHO, and Roy Rojas, project director of Cosevi.
Also participating were the National Traffic Commission of Chile (Conaset), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and authorities from Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Andorra and Portugal.
At the Oisevi assembly, authorities from the transport sector shared their experience and the good practices developed in their respective countries, within the framework of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030: The role of regional road safety networks.
To this end, several technical working groups were also held on “Institutionalism and International Cooperation”, “Motorist Safety”, “Safe Roads and Vehicles”, “Safe Behavior”, a technical presentation on “Road Safety with a Gender Perspective” and “Victim Care and Civil Society”.
The participants showed their interest in collaborating with the Dominican Republic in the task of reducing the worldwide problem of traffic accidents.
The meeting also dealt with the consequences, in their different aspects, and how road accidents affect Ibero-America, the creation of control manuals and road safety policies of the country, among other topics aimed at achieving results in the reduction of deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents.
The Oisevi is made up of the countries Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Source: presidencia.gov.do