Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 by WHO

Last Friday (7 December 2018), the World Health Organization (WHO) released its new Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018: the first broad assessment that describes the road safety situation in 178 countries, using data drawn from a standardised survey.

According to the report: relative to the world’s population size, road death rates have remained fairly constant, and the number of annual road traffic deaths has reached 1.35 million implying that nearly 3 700 people die on the world’s roads every day …equivalent to one death every 24 seconds!

While some reductions in road deaths have been seen among high- and middle-income countries, no low-income country has reduced road deaths since the last report in 2015. The risk of dying on the road is three times higher for those living in low-income countries than in high-income countries.

According to the Director General of World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “Drastic action is needed to put these measures in place to meet any future global target that might be set and save lives“.

The report states that the price paid for mobility is too high, especially because proven measures exist. In this contest, CITA welcomes this new report, and wishes for vehicle inspection included in the next edition.

• Read the full Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 HERE.