|
Every day, more than 3000 people die around the world as a direct result of road traffic injuries. A recent report produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank estimates that, without appropriate action, road traffic injuries are expected to become the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease and injury by 2020.
The World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention , issued on the occasion of World Health Day (April 7), which focuses this year on road safety, says that road traffic crashes are predictable, and therefore preventable.
With road traffic accidents accounting for 20 - 50 million injuries and disabilities each year and a $518 billion annual global burden, urgent actions must be taken by a variety of sectors including government, NGOs, car manufacturers and individuals.
Some of the report's significant facts and figures include:
- Low-income and middle-income countries account for about 85% of the deaths and for 90% of the annual disability-adjusted life years lost because of road traffic injury.
- Of the four main modes of travel - road, rail, air and marine - travel by road puts people at the greatest risk of injury per kilometer traveled by far. Compared with a person in a car, a person on a motorized two-wheeler is 20 times more likely to be killed for each kilometer traveled; a person on foot 9 times more likely; and a person on a bicycle 8 times more likely. A person in a car, however, is 10 times more likely to be killed than a passenger in a bus or coach and 20 times more likely to be killed than a passenger in a train.
- A recent study in New Zealand found that the incidence of road crashes could be reduced by up to 19% if people did not drive: 1) while feeling sleepy, 2) after sleeping for less than five hours in the previous 24 hours or 3) between 02:00 and 05:00.
- Road traffic injuries cost low-income and middle-income countries an annual $65 billion, exceeding the total amount of aid received for development assistance.
To read the full report: World report on road traffic injury prevention
For a brief summary of the report's recommendations: Recommendations
[pdf 334kb]
Additional Material:
|
what is this?
This widget will help you to store, organize, search, and manage your favorite online content through a range of social bookmarking services. These services permit users to save links to websites that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, or shared only inside certain networks. Authorized people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or through a search engine. Most social bookmarking services also permit their users to vote and rank public bookmarks to determine which are the best ones according to the number of votes they get.
|
