Road Safety Facts and Figures of Our Global Crisis

Road Safety is of significant importance on our roads, as we are not as safe as we think. More than 3,300 people killed each day on our road.

This figure equals with one person per 30 seconds and more than 1.2 million people per year. World Health Organizations reported that approximately 50 million people get serious injuries from vehicle crashes each year and uncountable number of families losing their loved one.

Some countries, especially the low and middle income, face even more serious threat than Western hemisphere. These countries account for more than 80% of global road traffic injuries and deaths, due to lack of proper road safety regulations. This figure contradicts with the number of motor vehicles in this region, which is only 40% of global motor vehicles. Despite the contradiction, this statistic shows us one crucial thing: road safety does not only depend on the number of local vehicles, but also road users’ awareness and regulations.  In fact, we play a very big role in our own road accidents, even deaths.

Even though the statistics are bothersome, another report by UN WHO revealed that police departments in many places only receive less than 50% of actual road crashes. There are still many people who choose to keep silence on accidents they see or which they have become the victim. If we still pretend nothing happens while there are still actual crash victims out there, World Health Organization forecasts road crashes will become the third most common killer in 2020.

Victims

Our children still become the most vulnerable victims of road crashes. At least 450 children die everyday due to road crashes. At some places like Asia, Middle East, and Africa, most of them were pedestrians when the crashes occur. Even until today, our children still faces an imminent death threat if we choose to do nothing. A brief example of children-involving road crashes report from developing crashes tell us the depth of this problem where the percentage of children under 15 killed in road crashes is three times higher than industrialized countries.

Calculating the Cost

Crashes represent both unnecessary and unwelcome drain on medical resources. In many countries, crashes account for up to 85% of local trauma hospital admissions. At global a level, this equals to approximately $64.5 billion at minimum. Medical cost and loss of property, grief, human pain, and losing work performance, these are only the names of several implications of road crashes.

Both the number of the victims, economic loss, and other implications of the crashes will still gradually increase if we do nothing. Several reports estimate more than 2.3 million people will die each year on roads in the next 15 years, leaving us with little time to fix this global crisis.

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