WHO Decade of Action for Road Safety

The WHO’s Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 –2020 makes it perfectly clear that managing our road systems is of vital importance, not only from a humanitarian perspective but from a government budget perspective too.

This  initiative revealed some staggering facts, that should snap transport authorities across the globe into action. A handful of these are as follows:

• More people die from road traffic accidents than from malaria, and by 2030 it is projected that it will be the 5th highest cause of death
• Worldwide vehicle ownership set to double by 2020, and the majority of this increase will occur in emerging markets
• Road traffic injuries cost countries between 1 and 3% of GDP

There are a number of other facts that I could include in this brief blog, however I think by the above three we can see that road safety cannot be swept under the carpet. With the way in which global road usage is destined to change over the coming decade, governments can no longer shy away from implementing new policy to bring about vital change that will save lives and streamline government spending. 

The vast increase in the number of vehicles on the road, particularly in emerging markets is yet again a pivotal piece of information when addressing road safety on a multi-national level. The areas where vehicle numbers are set to grow the most have relatively little transport infrastructure, which has often been poorly maintained.  The task ahead is huge and international dialogue is key in creating a plan of action, whereby emerging nations can learn from those with developed traffic management systems.

Choosing not to act now is inviting more people to certain death – something that surely can’t be part of any democratic policy.  Actively trying to change this must be part of the political agenda and with this economic efficiency is destined to follow.