Road Safety

Worldwide, the number of people killed in road traffic crashes each year is estimated at almost 1.2 million, while the number injured could be as high as 50 million^[1]. According to WHO data for 2002, road traffic injuries accounted for 2.1 percent of all global deaths and ranked as the 11th leading cause of death. Even though Africa does not have the highest number in absolute numbers the traffic-related mortality rate per capita is the highest in the world at 28.3 deaths per 100,000 of population.

The trend of road traffic injuries shows an overall increase around the world. In high-income countries there has been a decrease since the 1970s and at the same time, there has been a pronounced rise in many low-income and mid-income countries. About 85 percent of road deaths occurred in the developing and transitional countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In Sub-Saharan Africa, between 62 and 82 thousand lives were estimated to be lost in road crashes in 2000. Although all types of road users are at risk, the vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and two-wheeler users are at a greater risk. Combined they account for approximately 80 per cent of all road crash fatalities.
 
The road crash cost in Africa is estimated at US$ 3.7 billion.  Studies have indicated that the rate of return on investment to reduce crashes may be very high and that there is clearly a motivation to implement crash reduction measures. Since the costs of crashes are not carried by one particular organization, none of the relevant sectors have identified road safety as its main priorities, e.g. the key priority in the transport sector is maintenance and the key priority in the health sector is HIV/AIDS.
 
The SSATP helps its partner countries to formulate and implement sound transport policies and from the SSATP 2004 Addis Ababa Annual Meeting, Road Safety emerged as a priority area of concern for the Program. It was a general consensus among the Addis participants that the SSATP through its knowledge sharing networks, as well as its partnership credentials, will allow the program to add value to the work already being done by leaders in the road safety field, such as GRSP, CSIR, PIARC, and WHO.
 

Maputo, Mozambique, 2000

The issue of road safety is complex and involves several components such as policies, funding, recognized multi-sector ownership, legislation, medical treatment, enforcement, design, vehicles, education, etc. The challenge is to get all these components to work together.