Road accidents claim more lives in the world’s poorest countries than malaria or tuberculosis, say campaigners urging governments to treat fatal crashes as a global disease.
The Commission for Road Safety, chaired by the former Nato chief Lord Robertson, will on Thursday call on the G8 countries to support a $300-million 10-year plan to tackle the 1,2-million deaths and 50-million injuries on the roads every year. Experts forecast a 65% surge in fatalities by 2020.
Countries with low or middle incomes account for 85% of casualties, and a disproportionate number of the victims are young males who are often the main breadwinners. Poor people tend to be more vulnerable as they are more likely to be pedestrians or cyclists.
Robertson said: ”In 2005 millions of people, and the leaders of the G8, responded to the call to Make Poverty History. Yet many of the gains for development won in 2005 will be at risk if action is not taken to reverse the growing epidemic of road traffic death and injury.”
Africa has the highest road mortality rate of any continent, with 28 deaths for every 100 000 people, followed by the Middle East, where the rate is 26 for 100 000. In wealthy European countries 11 people die on the roads annually for every 100 000 of the population.
The commission, which includes the Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, said road safety was a glaring omission from the UN millennium development goals, which included tackling poverty, HIV, maternal health, child mortality and access to education.
Saul Billingsley, a spokesperson for the FIA Foundation, a Paris-based global motoring group, said: ”The problem with road safety is that there was no lobby organised when the millennium development goals were being set. Malaria, Aids and tuberculosis quite rightly occupied a lot of attention. We want to get road safety recognised as a global disease on the same scale as those others.”
The new fund will be used to incorporate safety measures into new roadbuilding schemes, improve driver training and provide expertise to governments in developing countries.
Britain has been asked to give $2-million a year, quadrupling the Department for International Development’s existing spending on road safety. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has offered qualified support to the initiative.
At a glance
More than 3 000 people die daily in road crashes worldwide. The Commission for Global Road Safety wants donors to road projects in developing states to give 10% of the aid for safety measures. Deaths are predicted to rise by 80% in middle- and low-income countries in the next 20 years. Poor families suffer most: a Bangalore study found 71% of poor urban families suffering a road crash had not been in poverty until then. – Guardian Unlimited Â