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CARS/ROAD SAFETY
source: www.who.int/world-health-
day/2004/infomaterials/world_report/
en/summary_en_rev.pdf
www.roadsafe.com/roadsafe2/
index.asp
themes.eea.eu.int/Sectors_and_activities/
transport/indicators/demand/TERM09,
2003/TERM_2003_09_ACCC.pdf
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Globally deaths and injuries resulting from road traffic crashes are a major and growing public health problem… - according to the “World report on road traffic injury prevention” carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, an estimated 1.2 million people are killed worldwide in road crashes each year and as many as 50 million are injured;
- the rates of road traffic death vary considerably between regions and between countries within regions. In general, rates are higher in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Altogether, low-income and middle-income countries accounted for 90% of all road traffic deaths in 2002. In Asia, from 1975 to 1998, road traffic fatality rates rose by 44% in Malaysia but by 243% in China;
- road traffic death rates have decreased in high-income countries since the 1960s and 1970s, although countries’ rates vary greatly even within the same region. For example, in North America, from 1975 to 1998, the road traffic fatality rate per 100,000 population declined by 27% in the United States but by 63% in Canada;
- World Bank’s projections of future traffic fatalities suggest that the global road death toll will grow by approximately 66% between 2000 and 2020. This number, however, reflects divergent rates of change in different parts of the world - a decline in fatalities in high-income countries of approximately 27% versus an increase in fatalities of about 83% in developing countries.
- by 2020, road traffic injuries are predicted to be the 3rd leading contributor to the global burden of disease and injury. South Asia will see a 144% increase in road deaths by 2020, from a base date of 2000 (almost 92% in China and 147% in India). The Middle East and North Africa are forecast to see a 68% increase in road deaths over the same period 2000-2020. These figures are based on no remedial action being taken. The authors also predict that the fatality rate will rise to approximately 2 per 10,000 persons in developing countries by 2020, while it will fall to less than 1 per 10,000 in high-income countries.
In most developing countries vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicycle and motorcycle riders account for the majority of fatalities…- in China's bigger cities, the rivers of bicycles - once one of the most vivid images of urban China - have been replaced with streets jammed with cars, most of them, terrifyingly, in the hands of novice drivers. Many cars on city streets display notices saying “New driver, please look after me” . The plea is in vain. The death rate on China's roads is the highest in the world: 680 die and 45,000 are injured every day, according to the World Health Organisation, compared with around 115 deaths a day in far more motorised America; (1)
- according to an official of Road Safety Cell (RSC) of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the annual fatality rate in road accident in Bangladesh is 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles followed by Nepal 62.7 and Myanmar 47.7 (in 2004). In the developed countries where the number of motorised vehicles is many time higher, the fatality rate is below 3 per 10,000 vehicles; (2)
- in the last 50 years, India's automobile population has grown 170 times while the road infrastructure has expanded only 9 times: the quality of roads, and even highways, is poor by international standards; they are badly maintained, narrow, and highly congested. Every hour around 9 people lose their lives and about 39 people get injured in road accidents. The rate of number of fatalities per 10,000 vehicles in India is 14.54. There are over 84,000 fatalities a year in traffic crashes; (3)
- in Africa, except for South Africa, cars are still considered a luxury. One of the causes that determine the greater number of road accidents, is certainly the lack of suitable road infrastructures and the fact that drivers are often unskilled or careless. For example, in Kenya, highway deaths now top 70 per 10,000 registered vehicles - a figure 30 or 40 times higher than in developed nations. More than 3,000 Kenyans were killed in accidents in 2003, despite having fewer than 500,000 registered vehicles (and a population of 32 million people) ; (2)
- in South Africa, about 10,000 people die, 40,000 are seriously injured and 110,000 are slightly injured in about 500,000 accidents every year, according to the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Interdisciplinary Accident Research Centre (UNIARC). In 2003, over 12% of all victims were children, with the most ‘at risk group’ aged between 6 and 12; (2)
- the danger of driving on most Latin American roads has become a macabre cliché - and a drain on the region’s societies and economies. According to estimates compiled by the Danish Road Directorate in a study financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), at least 100,000 people are killed in traffic accidents and 1.2 million are injured each year. For every 10,000 vehicles in circulation, the average Latin American country registers around 18 traffic fatalities per year (in the OCED countries, the average is 2.4 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles). The highest rates of deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles in Latin America and the Caribbean were found in Venezuela (58.4), Colombia (54.9), Belize (34.2), and Uruguay (33.4). (4)
Developed nations are very sensitive to loss of life due to road accidents. Some of them with fatality rates as low as 1 or 2 per 10,000 vehicles are making structured efforts to bring it down further… - the United States, for instance, hopes to bring down fatalities by 20% in 5 years. Sweden is working towards a Zero Vision, aimed at eliminating road deaths. Across Europe, North America and in Japan, one of the key strategies is to have a single body to oversee all traffic safety issues.
- in the US, road accidents represent the cause of 90% of deaths due to traffic. According to the 2005 Roadmap Report, 117 people die every day in road accidents, one every 12 minutes. Road accidents represent the principal cause of death for people between 4 and 33 years of age, with a very high incidence among young people, as both drivers and passengers. In 2003, while some progress was made, the 6.3 million motor vehicle crashes claimed the lives of 42,643 Americans (in 1970, they were 52,600, in 1999 about 41,600 and 43,005 in 2002) and caused nearly 3 million injuries; (5)
- in the European Union every year, more than 40,000 people are killed and more than 150,000 are disabled for life by road crashes. In the EU 15 countries road fatalities have fallen by 50% over the past 30 years, from 80,000 in 1972 to 42,000 in 1999;
- Eastern European countries represent 6% of global motor vehicles but 11% of road fatalities. Between 1990 and 2001, the annual number of people killed in road accidents decreased significantly, by 30%, in the 10 EU acceding countries despite growing road transport volumes. However, road accidents still claim more than 10,000 lives a year. The number of road injuries increased, by 7%, over the same period; (6)
- considering all the ECE member states, in 2000, Latvia, Russian Federation, Lithuania and Greece experienced the highest rates of persons killed per population. Each of these countries had approximately, or exceeded 20 deaths per 100,000 population. The safest places to drive in 2000 were the United Kingdom, Norway and Armenia where approximately 6 persons per 100,000 population were killed in road accidents. (7)
As well as the pain and suffering caused by road crashes, the economic costs (including health service costs, social benefits and lost production) are high…- the economic cost of road crashes and injuries is estimated to be 1% of gross national product (GNP) in low-income countries, 1.5% in middle-income countries and 2% in high-income countries. The global cost is estimated to be US$518bn per year. Low-income and middle-income countries account for US$65 bn, more than they receive in development assistance. The Transport Research Laboratory (now TRL Ltd) - who examined data on road traffic injuries from 21 low, middle and high-income countries and produced these crude estimates - emphasised that countries varied widely. For example, evidence suggested that the costs were 0.3% of GNP in Viet Nam but almost 5% of GNP in Malawi;
- in 2000, according to other studies, road traffic injuries cost Bangladesh US$745 million, 1.6% of GNP, and they cost South Africa US$2 billion. In Uganda, road crashes, injuries and fatalities cost US$101 million per year or 2.3% of GNP. In the Middle East the cost of accidents is estimated at US$ 7.4 billion, or 1.5% of GNP;
- in China in 1999, road traffic injuries caused the loss of 12.6 million potentially productive life years, with an estimated value of US$12.5bn, almost 4 times the country’s annual health budget. An estimate shows that annual social cost to India due to road accidents amounts to over Rs 55,000 crore (over US$12bn), and increasing every year;
- in the United States, motor vehicle crashes cost an estimated US$230bn in property and productivity loss, medical and emergency every year (2.3% of GNP). In Latin America, the cost of road traffic accidents, measured in lost productivity, hospital bills and other factors, is estimated at US$30bn.
- road traffic injuries cost European Union countries €180bn annually, twice the annual budget for all activities in these countries. Various studies done in the 1990s produced estimates of 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the United Kingdom, 0.9% in Sweden, 2.8% in Italy and an average of 1.4% of GDP in 11 high-income countries. Eastern Europe: in 1998, road traffic injuries cost Estonia US$66.6 million to US$ 80.6 million, Latvia US$162.7 million to US$194.7 million and Lithuania US$230.5 million to US$267.5 million;
- according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, in the United Kingdom the cost of a person seriously injured in a road crash is more than £100,000 (about €144,000) and the cost of a person killed is more than £1 million (about €1.44 million). Every year road accidents are estimated to cost the UK more than £16 billion (about €23 million).
(1) “Dream machines”, Beijing and Shanghai, from The Economist print edition, June 2nd 2005.
[ www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4032842]
(2) [ www.driveandstayalive.com/info%20section/statistics/stats-developing-countries.htm]
(3) Sources: [ www.siamindia.com/Media/Release/viewNewsHead.aspx?id=147]
[ www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=100677]
(4) Paul Constance, “The preventable plague”, Inter-American Development Bank newsletter, January-February 2000. [ www.iadb.org/idbamerica/archive/stories/2000/
eng/JAN00E/e200i.htm]
(5) Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates), “2nd Roadmap Report”, 2005.
[ www.saferoads.org/Roadmap2005.pdf]
(6) United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), “Trends in Europe and North America 2005”.
[ www.unece.org/stats/trends2005/transport.htm]
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