A recent estimate (WHO, 2013) suggests that worldwide 1.24 million people per year are killed in traffic. This is based on official figures, and this official figure is probably an underestimation. A large majority (92%) of road fatalities occur in the low and middle income countries that have 72% of the world’s population and 52% of all registered motorized vehicles. A further 12% of road fatalities occur in low income countries, leaving 8% to high income countries. The overall global road traffic fatality rate (mortality rate) amounts to 18 road deaths per 100 000 inhabitants, while the rate for high-income countries is 8.7, and 20.1for middle income countries. Not only are people killed in road crashes, they are often injured, sometimes seriously. We don’t have precise figures, but the WHO (WHO, 2009) estimated the annual number of road injuries as being between 20 and 50 million. These road crashes, fatalities and injuries result in considerable economic costs, estimated to be between 1 – 3% of the GDPs of countries. This issue can be considered from another perspective than that of economic costs: deaths and injuries have an enormous impact on families and communities. Economically disadvantaged families are hardest hit by both the direct medical costs and the indirect costs such as the loss of wages resulting from injuries (WHO, 2013). Road traffic injuries are estimated to be the eighth leading cause of death globally. They are the leading cause of death for people aged 15-29 years. This means that road casualties must be considered a very serious public health problem. About half of all road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the so-called ‘vulnerable road users’. At 57% and 51% respectively, the percentages are much higher in low- and middle income countries, than in high income countries with an average of 39%. Different traffic mixes in different countries result in different distributions of casualties over different transport modes. For example, in many South-East Asian countries powered two and three wheelers are very popular which is reflected in a high proportion of fatalities using this transport mode. In middle-income countries fatalities among cyclists are substantial (25%). Almost 60% of all global road traffic deaths are between 15-44 years of age. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting