#NoTePases

El Comercio

Lima, Peru

Category Public Relations and Community Service

Media associated with this campaign

Overview of this campaign

The powers to regulate Lima's chaotic traffic are divided among so many authorities that it is almost impossible to make coherent and coordinated decisions. Any real solution begins with the creation of an autonomous authority with the exclusive capacity to regulate, control and sanction all transport issues in the capital. #NoTePases main objective was to encourage Congress to take action and create this entity that could begin to solve chaos and save 500 lifes every year in Lima. We did this with investigative journalism and reports that showed how drivers and transportation companys violate the laws, kill people and still don't pay fines. We wanted to create a national sense that this problem can no longer be seen as something normal in our city. We wanted our readers to take action and authorities too. That's why we also interviewed the candidates for major of Lima driving their own cars and asked for their solutions to this big mess. We also wanted to explore all kinds of journalistic resources. Since April 2018 we have published over 200 articles, we made the most viewed videos in the history of El Comercio, we created the largest data base ever made to trace down every single registered public transportation vehicle and driver in Lima, we filmed a 20 minute documentary, we received over 200 daily reports from our readers, among other accomplishments.

Results for this campaign

El Comercio published the documentary "Licence for a blind man" wich demostrated how a person with almost no sight could obtain a drivers license without restrictions. The journalist who carried out the experiment suffers from severe myopia and managed to obtain a licence for public transport without restrictions or bribes, that is, by regular means.The documentary revealed that the driving schools clone fingerprints to accredit the attendance of the applicants before the Ministry of Transportation and that the medical centers that evaluate the drivers exonerate from any health examination in order to issue the approved certificates without control. Days after, the Government declared the total reorganization of the driver's license system and ordered a "computer blackout" of all health centers and driver's schools. At the end 75% of medical centers in the whole Peru had to close because of corruption and fraud. In Lima, of the 67 medical centers that were there, now only 11 remain. A journalist became a driver of a Taxi Application company and proved that this companies register their drivers and cars without knowing them, which represents a serious danger for the passengers. After this, Congress passed a bill to regulate this service.

The reports also revelead the names and faces of Lima's worst drivers. People with hundreds of driving ballots or tickets and suspended or terminated licences that continued on the roads. With the help of the Police we took them off the streets. We also revealed the case of La Nueva Estrella a transportation company that owes almost 3 million dollars in fines for serious traffic violations and we revelead how Lima's major allowed them to continue operating with total impunity. But the main result is that after this huge amount of journalism, Congress finally approved the autonomus authority that will begin in 2019 to organize the transportation system in our capital. We helped made possible the biggest transportation reform in Lima.