Abstract

Motorcyclists account for 71% of road crash fatalities in Cambodia. Use of mobile phones while driving increases the risk of road crash four times higher than those not using a phone. Young motorcycle drivers are a high-risk group of road users because they commonly use mobile phones while driving and are inexperienced drivers.

AIP Foundation’s Safety Delivered program, with both communication and education components, aims to reduce distracted driving among young and inexperienced motorcycle drivers aged 15 to 29 years old in Cambodia. The public awareness communication component targets this audience directly with media and messages tailored to them. Four university campuses were chosen as the main focus for the education component, because 99% of students surveyed had driven a motorcycle in the previous three months, of which 21% had been involved in a in a traffic crash in the previous 12 months. The component includes the establishment a sustainable network of influential and social media-connected young ‘road safety’ ambassadors at each campus and supports them in designing and delivering innovative activities to raise awareness about avoidable risky behaviors as well as road safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors at their campus, primary schools and the communities.

In the baseline survey 60% of students reported using their mobile phone while driving. These figures are likely to be conservative given the social desirability bias inherent in self-reported data. The majority of students recognised that mobile phone usage while driving a motorcycle was unsafe, but only 42% were aware of laws against mobile phone usage while driving and only 4% had been caught by police for this behaviour.

The subsequent program has been successfully running since April 2017 and will continue with the innovative road safety ambassadors initiative throughout 2018. Post intervention results will be available at the end of 2018.