SLAUGHTER ON THE ROAD: THE UNTOLD STORY OF TRAFFIC SAFETY

Each year, road traffic accidents kill more than one million people; another 50 million people are injured. Three-quarters of the casualties live in poor countries, thus affecting the most vulnerable groups such as pedestrians and cyclists. Globally, health losses from road traffic crashes over the next 20 years could jump well ahead of those from malaria or tuberculosis, writes Jamal Saghir, World Bank Director for Energy, Transport, and Water Strong leadership is needed to change the present situation. Road networks are complex systems which are inherently hazardous and must be managed and designed to compensate for human fallibility. Improving road safety in the developing world is a shared responsibility between government, industry, non-governmental organizations and international agencies. This effort faces the challenge of an implied fatalism suggesting that countries seeking economic growth must accept the inevitability of increased deaths and injuries on their roads. But this suggestion has worn thin as the bodies pile up on the roads and crash survivors begin their new lives disadvantaged by injury.