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Article

6 Nov 2019

Author:
Kunthear Mom, Khmer Times

Cambodia: The govt. introduces safer trucks to transport garment workers to their factories

"Push for safer trucks to transport garment workers", 6 November 2019

As hundreds of thousands of garment workers continue to risk their lives just to get to work everyday, the National Social Security Fund ... unveiled a plan to introduce safer trucks to transport them to their factories.

The Kingdom’s roads are notoriously dangerous, and garment factory workers currently travel to work standing in the back on flatbed trucks, leading to many fatal crashes.

NSSF director Ouk Samvithya ... during a consultation workshop on safety said safer trucks must be introduced.

“We want all drivers who use trucks to transport workers to improve their vehicles to be safer and better than right now because most of them use trucks made for transporting goods, not workers,” Mr Samvithya said.

... General Him Yan, deputy chief of National Police and member of the National Road Safety Committee, ... said the committee is currently looking to increase the number of safe passenger trucks used by factory drivers.

Heng Sophannarith, director of the NSSF’s policy division, ... said there were 1,186 cases of traffic accidents involving garment workers from January to September.

Mr Sophannarith added the accidents left 39 workers dead and 1,562 others injured.

He noted 37 cases involved trucks, 1,087 involved motorbikes, seven involved motorbike trailers, 12 involved bicycles and 42 involved pedestrians.

... Mann Seng Hak, vice president of the Free Trade Union of Cambodian Workers, ... said trucks used to transport goods should not be modified because those vehicles are not made to transport passengers...