BLOG SURF: Dead People

I see dead people. No, I don’t mean ghosts like the ones a young Haley Joel Osment could see in the 1999 hit film The Sixth Sense. I mean actual dead bodies. I see them all the time, victims of the seemingly lawless and definitely dangerous free-for-all that is driving on Cambodia’s national roads.

I can barely remember a trip to the provinces that did not involve witnessing the aftermath of a horrific road accident. Blood on the road, a motorbike tipped over, feet or an arm sticking out from under a makeshift shroud. There is always a crowd gathered around.

Take any longer road trip in the Kingdom of Wonder and you are very likely to see dead people too.

An average of 5 to 6 people are killed every day on Cambodia’s roads, with another 40 suffering non-fatal injuries. In this small country of fewer than 15 million, mostly rural people, the number of traffic fatalities doubled from 2005 to 2011.