Individuals with Disabilities do not have a healthy traffic environment!
Drawing attention to the difficulties faced by individuals with disabilities in traffic, Road and Traffic Safety Consultant Özgür Şener expressed that "A traffic environment has not yet been created where wheelchair users can move unaided."
Pointing out that the traffic safety of people with disabilities in Türkiye is insufficient, Şener emphasized the necessity of public information campaigns.
Üsküdar University Occupational Health and Safety Department Instructor, Road and Traffic Safety Consultant Özgür Şener evaluated the issue of wheelchair ramps and awareness.
Who is the disadvantaged group of traffic?
Stating that countries that attach importance to traffic safety, pedestrians, bicycles, two-wheeled motorcyclists and individuals using wheelchairs, who suffer the most from traffic collisions, are called "Unprotected Road Users", Özgür Şener said that "While making traffic designs, they design in a way that distinguishes motorized/electric vehicles with a bodywork and protection and unprotected road users at the maximum level. It is based on the fact that these users, which we can call the disadvantaged group of traffic, go from point A to point B in an uninterrupted protected and safe manner."
There is no traffic environment where an individual moving in a wheelchair can go unaided
Özgür Şener also stated that they regulate traffic in accordance with elderly individuals and individuals in wheelchairs with the highest level of movement restriction among vulnerable road users, and continued his remarks as follows:
"For example, they determine the safe crossing time at a pedestrian crossing with a traffic light based on the time that the oldest person who can be in traffic can safely cross the street. In our country, we see that the movement restrictions of our disabled individuals are taken into account in the traffic regulations made in recent years. However, unfortunately, we do not have a traffic environment where individuals in wheelchair can go anywhere they want without the help of someone else."
There is a need for public information and awareness-raising activities and campaigns!
Road and Traffic Safety Consultant Özgür Şener, who expressed that it is not possible for the disabled to interfere with social life and to be in traffic freely and safely, when the insensitive behavior of vehicle drivers is added to this infrastructure, which is currently insufficient, concluded his remarks as follows: "Vehicles parked on the sidewalk and wheelchair ramps prevent the individual using a wheelchair from moving even with the support of an assistant. To overcome this obstacle, it causes them to use unsafe carriageways and be exposed to vehicle collisions. There is a need for public information and awareness-raising activities and campaigns on this issue. The limited resources of the Spinal Cord Paralysis Association of Türkiye and the efforts to make its voice heard on this issue should be supported by the state with public service announcements."
Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)