KARACHI: Ninety per cent of all road traffic deaths — some 1.25 million — occur in low- and middle-income countries. While these countries also account for 82pc of the world’s population, they nevertheless bear a disproportionate number of deaths relative to their level of motorisation, as they account for only 54pc of the world’s registered vehicles, says the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015 released on Monday.

Road traffic deaths and injuries in low- and middle-income countries, it says, are estimated to cause economic losses of up to 5pc of GDP.

The report on road safety, the third in its series, comprises a narrative text combining evidence, facts and best practices with conclusions drawn following the analysis of the data collected for 180 countries.

According to the report, a third of all road traffic deaths in the South East Asia and Western Pacific regions are among motorcyclists. Pedestrians and cyclists are also among the group with the least protection, making up 22pc and 4pc of global deaths, respectively.

The report also found that some vehicles sold in 80pc of all countries worldwide fail to meet basic safety standards, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where nearly 50pc of the 67 million new passenger cars were produced in 2014.

“Sixty-eight countries have seen a rise in the number of road traffic deaths since 2010, of which 84pc are low- or middle-income countries. Seventy-nine countries have seen a decrease in the absolute number of deaths, of which 56pc are low and middle income.”

Countries that have had the most success in reducing the number of road traffic deaths have achieved this by improving legislation, enforcement and making roads and vehicles safer.

The risk of a road traffic death, the report says, varies significantly by region, and there has been little change in the regional rates of death since 2010. The highest rates are still in the African region, while the European region has a rate far below the global average (9.3 per 100,000 population).

The Eastern Mediterranean is the only region where high-income countries have a higher road traffic death rate than low- or middle-income countries.

“This suggests that in some of the more affluent Eastern Mediterr­anean countries, rapid economic development that has resulted in increased motorisation and road infrastructure construction have not been accompanied by sufficient investment in interventions required to cope with these changes to ensure roads are safe,” it states.

In the region of the Americas, the proportion of motorcycle deaths rose from 15pc to 20pc of the total road traffic deaths between 2010 and 2013.

The report shows that the number of road traffic deaths — 1.25m in 2013 — has remained fairly constant since 2007, despite the increase in global population and motorisation and the predicted rise in deaths.

“But while the levelling out of road traffic deaths in a context of rising motorisation is encouraging, there are still no signs of an actual decline, which is essential if the Decade of Action and Sustainable Development Goal targets are to be materialised,” it says.

Pakistan lags far behind

Pakistan, according to the report, is among the 80 countries that have no eligible death registration data.

The country’s profile shows that (though) Pakistan has a lead agency – National Transport Research Centre – it’s not funded in the national budget. The country neither has a national road safety strategy nor a fatality reduction target. No regular inspection of existing road infrastructure is carried out.

“Pakistan has no policy to promote walking or cycling while policies to encourage investment in the public transport are now a sub-national (provincial) subject,” the report shows.

It also demonstrates a huge disparity in the reported road traffic fatalities (7,636) in the country in 2013 and the WHO estimated 25,781 road fatalities.

While the country has a national seat-belt, drink-driving and motorcycle helmet laws, their enforcement is poor. There are no laws about the type of restraint to be used for children at different ages and how they should be seated in a vehicle.

On post-crash care, it shows that Pakistan has no emergency room injury surveillance system. There are multiple telephone numbers for emergency access (instead of having a universal access number to activate emergency service response).

The publication of the report follows the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes an ambitious road safety target and precedes the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety that will be held in Brasilia, Brazil on Nov 18-19 this year.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2015

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