Bill 591.

Summary.

The bill proposes to promote road safety in the Republic of Panama through education, awareness, and prevention aimed at road users. It defines road safety, defensive driving, and road safety culture, and tasks the Land Transit and Transportation Authority (Autoridad de Tránsito y Transporte Terrestre) with promoting ongoing programs, campaigns, and strategies. Each year, the Authority must prepare a National Road Safety Education Plan with the relevant public entities and encourage participation by its regional offices, local governments, educational institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector. At the end of each year, it must also prepare an Official Technical Report covering impact indicators, progress in education, reductions in road incidents, and recommendations; submit it to the National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional); present it to the Communication and Transportation Committee (Comisión de Comunicación y Transporte); and publish it through institutional channels.

The Authority must provide ongoing instruction, training, and certification in defensive driving and road safety education for driving school instructors and public officials who drive state vehicles. Programs may be in person, online, or blended; completion will be mandatory to obtain or renew driving school operating licenses. In coordination with public institutions and local and community stakeholders, the Authority will run ongoing programs on traffic rules, safe mobility practices, and public participation. It will periodically assess their reach, changes in behavior, and road incident rates, and publish an accessible annual report. The Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación), together with the transit authority, will oversee road safety training for teachers at public and private educational institutions.

The transit authority will collect, standardize, analyze, and publish data on road incidents, risks, road safety education, campaigns, and compliance with the proposed provisions. It will coordinate methodologies and statistical harmonization within the National Statistical System (Sistema Estadístico Nacional) with the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo). Each year, it will prepare another Official Technical Report using those data and publish them to support national, regional, and local planning. Through the National Directorate of Road Safety Education and User Protection (Dirección Nacional de Educación Vial y Defensa del Usuario), it will coordinate, plan, oversee, and evaluate the proposed activities, with authority to establish cooperation mechanisms with public entities, local governments, educational institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector.

The bill designates the fourth week of October as Road Safety Week and October 23 as Road Safety Day. For those dates, it provides for forums and debates coordinated with the Ministry of Education and national and regional authorities; activities by state institutions; messages in the media; and competitions, drills, and training at educational institutions. The transit authority will coordinate parades and activities concerning pedestrian crossings, safety lines, seat belts, designated drivers, and phone use while driving with the National Police (Policía Nacional) and community boards. It also creates the “Panamá Segura en las Vías” National Distinction, to be awarded annually to educational institutions, companies, municipalities, drivers with more than 3 years without traffic violations, and civil society organizations that meet the specified criteria.

The bill creates the National Road Safety Education Fund (Fondo Nacional de Educación y Seguridad Vial), administered by the transit authority exclusively to finance educational and awareness programs, campaigns, materials, and activities. It may receive public appropriations, private contributions, inheritances, bequests, donations, cooperation funds, and other income permitted by law. The Authority will submit an annual report on the fund’s use. The bill repeals Law 58 of September 22, 2015 in two articles; tasks the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) with issuing implementing regulations within 180 days of its promulgation; and provides that it will enter into force the following day. Its provisions concern transit, education, and statistical authorities, state institutions and local governments, as well as driving schools, educational institutions, media outlets, companies, drivers, and other road users.