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Half of Traffic Fatalities Are Not in Cars

Nearly half of the 1.2 million people killed in traffic accidents around the world each year are not in cars. They are on motorcycles or bicycles or walking along the side of the road.

That finding, released in a report today, might help explain why 90 percent of the world's traffic fatalities occur in a group of countries that together have fewer than half of the world's cars.

The country-by-country survey of traffic injuries and deaths was published by the World Health Organization in a 351-page report that focuses on an overlooked problem in public health. It also sketches a picture of where 178 countries stand in their use of such safety measures as speed limits, helmet laws and blood-alcohol restrictions.

Traffic mishaps are the 10th-leading cause of death in the world, behind lung cancer and ahead of diabetes. They are on track to be the fifth-leading cause by 2030 unless efforts to reduce the toll succeed.

Five years ago, the United Nations agency published a report that presented evidence for the usefulness of legal, medical and road-engineering interventions, such as speed bumps, designed to prevent accidents or reduce fatalities. However, it didn't know how widely the strategies were used.

"It is really exciting because this is the first time we know this," said Etienne G.G. Krug, a physician at WHO in Geneva who led the project.
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The data were gathered last year from transportation, health and police ministry officials from around the world, who met under WHO auspices to pool their information and answer a questionnaire.

One of the more surprising discoveries was the toll on pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcycle riders crowding the roads in developing countries, who accounted for 46 percent of all traffic deaths.

"These are people who can't even afford a car," said Krug. "We have been neglecting in our transport policy the needs of those people. There is a big inequality there."

High-income countries, such as the United States and most of Europe, have 52 percent of registered cars but only 9 percent of traffic deaths. For low-income countries, including most of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, the statistics are nearly reversed. They have 9 percent of the world's cars but 42 percent of the traffic deaths.

The risk to people outside cars is especially striking in some Asian countries, where motorcycles and motorbikes are the leading mode of transportation, and adult riders often carry children and babies with them.

In Indonesia, 61 percent of traffic deaths involve people on two- or three-wheel motorized vehicles, 15 percent are pedestrians, 13 percent bicyclists, 4 percent car passengers and 3 percent car drivers.

(cont'd on site)