Page 24 - TurkInsurance Digital Magazine

22 at a glance

Süleyman Soylu, Minister of Internal Affairs: ‘‘Attention in traffic is not an op-
tion, but an obligation”

Organization, more than 1 million people die and more than
50 million people are wounded in traffic accidents every year.
Therefore, World Health Organization regards traffic acci-
dents as a public health problem. In our country, 3 thousand
535 people died and more than 303 thousand people were
wounded on the scene of traffic accidents that occurred in
2017. It is impossible to solve a problem that so deeply im-
pacts our personal and social lives only with the efforts of
traffic cops. It is crucial that the civil society and our citizens
work in cooperation to solve this huge problem. It is so happy
to see that the number of traffic accidents involving deaths are
decreasing as the years passed. I wish that this training will
contribute to the reduction of those numbers even further.”

Organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and General “Non-human fac-
Directorate of Security Affairs, the first ‘Training for Safe tors account for 1.3
Driving Rules’ was launched with a press conference held in percent of traffic
Ankara. Attended by the traffic cops and drivers that were accidents”
previously engaged in traffic accidents; the training was initi- Süleyman Soylu, Min-
ated by the speeches of Selami Altınok, Governor and Director ister of Internal Af-
General of Public Security; Can Akın Çağlar, President of the fairs, said in his speech:
Insurance Association of Turkey; and Süleyman Soylu, Minis- “Non-human factors ac-
ter of Internal Affairs. counted for 1.3 percent
of the traffic accidents
The training that underlined the importance of safe driving, that occurred in 2017.
was sponsored by the Insurance Association of Turkey within Our new target for traf-
the framework of their support in decreasing the number of fic is to change the ‘hu-
traffic accidents in our country. It emphasized that driver er- man factor’ and ‘human
rors had a huge part in traffic accidents, therefore precaution- behavior’ in traffic.
ary actions were required to prevent those errors; which made
such trainings much more significant. During the training, The number of accidents resulting in death decreased by half
famous actor and radio programmer Kadir Çöpdemir staged at the end of 2017, down to 100 thousand. As the Ministry
a performance that interprets traffic accidents in his unique of Internal Affairs, Directorate General of Public Security,
style. The event was also attended by Fatih Şentürk, player in and Gendarmerie, we have formed a common strategy. In-
Turkey national amputee football team; and Fikret Gündüz, creasing the visibility of traffic cops and gendarmerie on the
Chief Police Officer on behalf of the Directorate of Traffic roads with this strategy has made a significant contribution to
Services, General Directorate of Public Security. decreasing the rate of traffic accidents. It is clear that losses
will decrease as the audits and awareness increase. Attention
“1 million people in traffic is not an option, but an obligation. We must create
die in traffic acci- this awareness all together.”
dents annually”
Selami Altınok, Gov- “Traffic accidents pose a national matter”
ernor and Director Can Akın Çağlar, President of the Insurance Association of
General of Public Se- Turkey, stated during his opening speech that the Associa-
curity, highlighted the tion felt responsible as a significant stakeholder for traffic
statistics and research accidents and that they regarded the effort for decreasing the
results about traffic number of traffic accidents as a national matter. Çağlar also
accidents during his said that the Association will support any ongoing and future
speech and said: “Ac- efforts by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in solving this prob-
cording to the statis- lem.
tics of World Health