Men Mostly Involved in Traffic Accidents, Study Reveals
For every female driver dying in a traffic accident 13 male drivers die, show the results of the first statistical study by the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi).

To date this year there have been 141 reported deaths from traffic accidents, and 31 additional deaths in hospital or on route to medical attention. The numbers represent 26 more deaths than the same period in 2006.

Notwithstanding, there were seven deaths less last month over April of 2006.

The statistics indicate that between 29% and 34% of all traffic accident deaths involve those under the age of 26.

Vivian Martín, vice-minister of Transport, made the report public yesterday, saying that the majority of the deaths are due to inexperienced drivers, immaturity, aggressive driving habits, competition and abuse of drugs and alcohol while driving.

The vice-minister indicated that the greatest number of accidents and deaths occurred in: Alajuela with 21%, followed by San José with 18%, Gunacaste, Puntarenas and Limón with 14% each.

Roy Rojas, director of Cosevi, explained the program for the "Semana de la Seguridad Vial" (road safety week), which will focus on adolescents contributing ideas to avoid traffic accident deaths.

The Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (INA) was the scene of a workshop yesterday where high school students contributed proposals that will be elaborated by traffic officials.

Some of the contributions made were for traffic officials to be more rigorous, fines and rules mean nothing if no one complies with them, one student said.