As seen in the photo above, friends clamoring into the bed of a pick-up truck and using it as passenger space is indeed common in El Salvador, if only part of the adventure that is driving in the country. Roads, especially those close to the capital, San Salvador, are packed with every type of transportation imaginable. At a particularly hectic juncture, it is not uncommon for a large bus, spewing black smoke, to speed past a truck (loaded with passengers) that is on the left side of a bicyclist, while several pedestrians walk along the shoulder of the road as a moped approaches.
This situation is hardly exclusive to El Salvador, and the above snapshot of a typical busy segment of road offers insight into traffic issues worldwide. According to a 2004 report by the World Health Organization (WHO), a mix of vehicle types, lack of safety restraints, and dangers to pedestrians mentioned in the scene (from my firsthand account) are all prime aspects of significant quantities of traffic-related injuries and fatalities throughout the world. The report states, for example, that in New Delhi, India, two-thirds of accidents involve trucks or buses and that “in many low-income and middle-income countries, second-hand trucks and buses are imported without the crash-protective features – such as occupant restraints ... Such vehicles have a poor crashworthiness performance, and also poor stability when fully laden or overloaded, as they frequently are.”
A Comparison of El Salvador's Accident Statistics with the World
The ability to accurately document accidents worldwide is recent, according to the WHO report, since low-to-middle-income countries have only just begun collecting statistical data from traffic accidents.
The report states that 75 out of the 194 countries (based on WorldAtlas.com) keep sufficient data.
In the report, El Salvador is listed as having a particularly high mortality rate: 41.7 per 100,000 population. Other Latin countries, such as the Dominican Republic (41.0 per 100,000) ranked similarly. Next in line are some European countries that rank 22.7 per 100,000.
At least in El Salvador, though, danger to passengers in pickup trucks is not the biggest traffic-related concern. In El Salvador, 1,493 of 13,148 traffic injuries were fatal, according to 2007 data collected by WHO and cleared by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance. Of these fatalities, the largest group was identified as pedestrians, at 63 percent. Passengers of four-wheeled vehicles accounted for 18 percent. Drivers made up nine percent.
A Comparison of El Salvador's Seat Belt Laws with the World
The WHO report acknowledges that riding as a passenger in an open-backed vehicle, such as a pickup truck, is common to many rural areas and that the main risk is, of course, ejection of the passengers upon collision. The obvious concern with carrying passengers in the back of a truck is the lack of safety restraints. Most countries, including El Salvador, have some sort of seat belt law in place. In fact, only 10 countries are identified, by ChartsBin.com, as without seat belt laws. But In countries in which over-population is prevalent, seat-belt laws may be disregarded.
Laws, in any event, differ from country to country. While most countries' seat belt laws require that all passengers buckle up, the United States (although it varies from state to state), some countries in Africa and South Asia, among a few others (including El Salvador) only require the front-seat passengers to wear safety restraints, according to data from ChartsBin.
While the practice riding in beds of trucks is more common in low-to-middle-income countries, it happens everywhere. In some states in the U.S., the practice is legal. Texas, for example, allows passengers 18 years of age or older to ride in the rear of open-backed vehicles, according to chron.com. In California, it is illegal, according to the DMV, unless the bed is somehow rigged up with up-to-code safety restraints and seats.
Sources:
- World Health Organization. 2004. World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention. who.int
- World Atlas. 2011. How Many Countries? Worldatlas.com
- ChartsBin. 2011. Seatbelt Legislation. Chartsbin.com. Based on data from WHO.
- Spell, Tim. 2008. People, dogs in open pickup beds. Houston Chronicle. blog.cron.com
- Department of Motor Vehicles. 2011. V C Section 23116 Carrying Persons in the Back of a Motor Truck. CA.gov
- World Health Organization, Ministry of Public Health and Socail Assistance. 2007. El Salvador. who.int
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