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NEWS AND EVENTS
WHO study reveals that nearly one half of all deaths on the roads are people not in cars
Pedestrians, cyclists and
Motorcyclists paying the toll
The Global status report on road safety, was released in New York on Monday 15 June. This first global assessment of road safety finds that almost half of the estimated 1.27 million people who die in road traffic crashes each year are pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. While progress has been made towards protecting people in cars, the needs of these vulnerable groups of road users are not being met.
The key messages of the report are:
- Road traffic injuries remain a global public health problem, especially in low-income and middle-income countries.
- Nearly half of those dying on the world's roads are vulnerable road users.
- Few countries have comprehensive road safety laws that are well enforced.
- Few countries have reliable data on road traffic injuries.
New data from the report include:
- Less than a third of countries meet basic criteria for reducing speed in urban areas.
- Less than half of countries use the recommended blood alcohol concentration limit of 0.05 grams per decilitre as a measure to reduce drink-driving.
- While helmet laws exist in more than 90% of countries, only 40% have a law that covers both riders and passengers while also requiring that helmets meet a specified standard.
- Only 57% of countries have laws that require all car occupants to wear seat-belts. This figure is only 38% in low-income countries.
- Half of all countries do not have laws requiring the use of child restraints (e.g., child seats and booster seats). This figure masks considerable variation, with relevant laws in 90% of high-income countries but only 20% of low-income countries.
- Only 15% of countries have comprehensive laws which address all five of these risk factors.
- Where laws on these risk factors are in place they are often inadequately enforced, particularly in low-income countries. For example, only 9% of countries rate their enforcement of speed limits as over 7 on a scale of 0 to 10, while the corresponding figure for enforcement of seat-belt laws is 19%.
- More than 90% of the world’s road deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries, while these countries only have 48% of the world’s vehicles.
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