Introduction
The World Health Organization has categorized as "epidemic" to traffic accidents, as are the tenth leading cause of death worldwide and are designed, if nothing is done about it, as the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.
In 2005, the Ombudsman's Office, civil society organizations, the World Health Organization and other public institutions produced a special report on road safety, which recommends that national, provincial municipal and provide the necessary steps to resolve the road issue.
Given the magnitude of the problem, it requires a public and social commitment to solve it.
The recommendations and proposals embodied in the said report highlights the need for road safety education for all educational levels, from beginners to university and graduate-as an essential condition for a meaningful approach. Taking into account the human factor as the major cause of accidents in traffic, it is considered that education is the key strategy for prevention.
Considering the magnitude of the problem, November 30, 2006, the Executive Branch declared 2007 as the "Year of Road Safety" , through Decree 1724. Well, it is a priority for the Government to solve the problems associated with road safety, prevention policies that contribute effectively to reduce the number victims of traffic accidents and the consequences of damage caused by them.
is reported that three interacting components of the traffic system (the human, vehicle and environment), is the human being the main cause of traffic accidents. Therefore, systematic education is one of the main pillars of public action for road safety and accident prevention.
The road safety involves a rights issue, because to live, enjoy health and physical and mental integrity, freedom to travel, of movement and residence in the public arena and participate in all social and cultural events taking place in this area are fundamental rights enshrined in the national and provincial legal systems. The Pact of San José de Costa Rica expressed in Article 5: "Everyone has the right to respect for their physical, moral and psychological" and it is based civil damages.
Children, youth and adults must be prepared to take care of our own life. We must begin this preparation from small, family, school and society in general. And from baseline values \u200b\u200bare treated, the rights and duties people: in this framework we can begin to educate the passer.
transit Notion
Before starting to develop different approaches to the subject is essential to address some definitions. First, the definition of "transit."
Of the different definitions, which means choose "the transition as the movement of vehicles and people along the roads under a conventional system of rules" . From this point of view, transit is an organized and shaped by man. All persons traveling on public roads are a part of it, in interdependence with each other. Every time someone "out" of your home, "comes" to be part of a whole in motion. All moving, are united by a common goal to move from one point to another. Each relies on others to that aim. Individual behavior of each affects and influences the other and vice versa. Every road user is responsible for a portion of transit (Isoba, Maria Cristina, The challenge of road safety education, Journal Fight for Life, No. 0, 1994).
While security system also depends on other elements that shape it (the clarity and effectiveness of the rules that order, the right conditions and road signs, and vehicles, which run on it) are people, road users (pedestrians, drivers and passengers) who at all times and in every place, with its behavior, finish shaping and defining characteristics. All road users are entitled to move freely through the streets, and all share in both "doers" of the system share responsibility for making this possible.
dictionary of the English Royal Academy defines the word "accident" as "any event or action that is unintentionally harm to people or things."
National Traffic Law 24449, in Article 64, considers "traffic accident" to "any act that causes harm to persons or property as a result of the movement."
These definitions, especially the "accident" about a fact that may happen or not (eventually), and not the product of the will, gives way to think is inevitable; however, this belief, widespread condition that usually shows before the informal, everyday narrative of this kind of events, not true. An accident is always unintentional, but in most cases can be avoided by taking some precautions . Detailed analysis of traffic accident reveals that most of them are due to causes that they could have been avoided. Accidents are possible situations happen if certain conditions are met. Know and avoid those conditions is to reduce the possibility that happen. That's why most advanced countries in road safety have been taken several measures that produced significant declines in the mortality and morbidity. Reverse
fatalistic belief system on traffic accidents is a vital educational role for the development of a culture of prevention.
The need to rethink the term "accident"
The belief in the accident as a fatality inevitable worries experts around the world, so that in some areas it seeks to use other words that do not relate the inevitability, such as shock, collision, incident.
Thus, although the construction "traffic accident" is commonly used to refer to the various incidents where vehicles and people involved, with its attendant injuries and deaths, we emphasize the need to rethink the term and see how many times the "accidents" are hardly accidental and could have been avoided with adequate preventive measures .
revise the definition of accident will allow us to remember that the word covers factors, human error, carelessness, sometimes contempt for the lives of others, which are the cause of many so-called "accidents."
Let's see what the report mentions about the ombudsman Classification:
- its most current, refers to an accident unforeseen occurrence, usually poor, which alters the normal course of things . By suggesting that this is an unexpected event, the use of the word crash hinders the study of the problem, since an accident is not due to chance or fate, nor intentional in the sense you want to deliberately cause damage.
- accident The word used to describe tambiénse human error. This use has resulted in the exclusion of the subject sequence resulting in no injury intentional, making it impossible to analyze the actions that lead to risky behavior .
- production an accident also often attributed to fate or divine. This belief, while functioning as a premise, it prevents awareness of the determinants of fact and difficult to implement strategies to prevent its occurrence (Loimer, H., Dr Iur, M., Guarnieri, M.: "Accidents and Acts of God: A History of the Terms "Am.J.Public Health. 1996, 86:101).
the foregoing suggests that class are analyzed in various "accidents", not just traffic, but for example those that occur at home (a cleaning product poisoning, electrocution, for example) - as a means to install in students from an early age the notion of prevention, essential for healthy living.
notion of anomie
While social space of intersection, the traffic in our country shows a central feature in this society: the tendency anomic, that is, a certain disregard for rules and compliance . This concerns in particular a specific type of anomia, described by Charles S. Nino in his book A country outlaw (Buenos Aires, Emecé, 1992): anomie "silly"
According to him, there are different types of illegality. One is the individual deviation that occurs when individuals are suitable for their interests fail to observe the law, hoping to benefit from it given the likelihood of the behavior of others. Another type of illegality is when we develop a social conflict that leads to a sector to ignore the authority that makes the laws in question.
But the kind of illegality Nino call "anomie silly" is of a different nature, because it involves social situations in which all suffer. This is a silly as anomie is not the result of interest or value which the law could not meet and which seeks to satisfy the margin.
In a society that suffers from anomie fool all break the law to the extent that, by doing so, no one gets an advantage over others. Everyone loses. Thus, this society could be represented by the image of two drivers who do not respect the traffic lights but do not get anywhere fast but hit and ruined or killed. In the case of transit, anomie is "silly" because no one benefits more than a moment, and finally all are greatly affected.
