YASA Founder says citizen education is just as critical as infrastructure upgrades

 "Citizens still lack the proper awareness of the extreme danger they face when they choose to avoid using pedestrian bridges and cross the busy roads and highways beneath them," said Ziad Akl, Founder of Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA). The remarks came as reports another citizen had been hit by a car Sunday while crossing the Dora highway. By chance, Akl had witnessed the incident as he was passing by and photographed the aftermath, but was unable to identify the victim.

"I took pictures of the accident, as the ambulance was on its way," he said, "the victim was barely breathing, I don't even know if he survived the accident. And on top of this, there was no media to capture the accident and spread awareness of the need to use pedestrian bridges in this country."

On Tuesday, another man was hit by a car while crossing a major highway, despite the presence of a pedestrian bridge not very far from the site.

According to YASA, the government should spread awareness and play an active role in demonstrating how "lethal" crossing the highways can be.

"In every other civilized country around the world a 100 meter barrier is set on both sides of a runway leading to a pedestrian bridge, in order to force people to climb on the bridge instead of crossing the road," Akl said, "unfortunately, this kind of prevention is inexistent in Lebanon."

Such precaution, Akl said, costs "practically nothing to build."

"You know the municipalities make a lot of money out of those advertisement posters that you see hanging on bridges and billboards," Akl said, "I wonder where all that money goes if only a small fraction of it is needed to build the pedestrian bridges barriers."

An engineer working at the Council for Redevelopment and Construction (CDR) said once the Ministry of Public Works ends the construction of the "promised" pedestrian bridges, the barriers issue would be raised with the Council. "First things first," said the engineer, who requested anonymity.

Akl said while "There are currently only 35" such bridges, "no less than 150" are in fact needed nationwide.

He explained that authorities had a tendency of pretending "Lebanese people do not use pedestrian bridges as they should, while studies have shown that 80 percent of the Lebanese actually used the pedestrian bridges."

Akl said more than 90 people are killed each year in Lebanon due to the lack of pedestrian bridges.

According to Akl, it is every Lebanese citizen's duty to claim their right to such bridges for their own safety.

"However, in a country with such lack of awareness about the use of pedestrian bridges, such bridges are sometimes inadequate, without the presence of adjacent barriers to force the people to climb the bridge instead of crossing the highway beneath."

FACT According to YASA, pedestrian accidents cause 290 casualties a year in Lebanon, with 1,800 people suffering permanent disabilities and 3,500 sustaining minor injuries