INTERVIEW-Road accidents major killer, action needed - U.N.
16 Nov 2007 16:51:56 GMT Source: Reuters
By Peter Apps LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Road traffic accidents are soaring in the developing world to become a major public health crisis as bad as infectious diseases because booming car ownership has not been matched by safety awareness. A United Nations expert on Friday said road safety should be a global priority with simple measures like making sure people wear seatbelts saving hundreds of thousands of lives. According to the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) road crashes kill 1.2 million people a year and injure or permanently disable as many as 50 million more, making them the leading cause of death amongst people aged between 10 and 24 years. Ninety percent of those deaths were in developing countries, where road safety efforts have not kept pace with the growth of new drivers getting behind the wheel. "It is very serious and becoming more so," Etienne Krug, head of the WHO's Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of the UN-designated World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday. "It is as bad as malaria. As issues have been tackled in Europe, America and Australia the death toll has gone down but in the developing world the trend is the opposite." India's road death toll had quadrupled in recent decades, he said. Traffic accidents were likely to rise from the tenth highest cause of death worldwide to the eighth by 2020, he said. "New roads and new cars are good for development but they are not matched by safety improvements," he said. "We want this recognized as a problem and a priority. In most low and middle income countries it is simply not on the agenda." Key was having a central road safety agency in each country, he said, with the most simple interventions being ensuring seatbelts were fitted, working and used and that motorcycle riders wore helmets. India had set up a central agency, he said, but still had much to do to change behaviour while China -- despite investing in speed cameras and targeting drink driving -- also had a long way to go. Many African countries had done practically nothing. Aid donors should consider funding speed cameras in the same way they pay for mosquito nets to reduce the spread of malaria in Africa, he said. Western multinational firms had a responsibility to both ensure their own vehicle fleets were safe, while pushing for, and helping fund road safety schemes. A World Bank study suggested the cost of road crashes in medical bills, lost labour and other expenses cost developing nations more than they received in international aid, he said. "Those affected are mostly young people," he said. " Even those who are not killed are often left permanently disabled and unable to work. It means all the money invested in educating them and finding them jobs is lost." (for more information on humanitarian crises and issues visit www.alertnet.org) (Editing by Matthew Jones)
