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Abstract
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Just after the new year, a bus in Peru plunged off a winding cliffside road following a collision, leading to over 50 deaths. The road lacked guardrails or other safety equipment. The incident dramatically underscores the conclusions from a World Bank Group report published last week, The High Toll of Traffic Injuries. Addressing the burden of road traffic injuries (RTIs) will not only save lives but can greatly increase the social welfare of people in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
Using methods to estimate the public health impact of diseases, the report quantifies the cost of RTIs in five LMICs to make the case that investment in improving traffic safety could pay dividends in the future. Reducing RTIs by half—towards UN Sustainable Development Goals for traffic safety—could increase the GDP per capita of the countries examined by an additional 15–22% by 2042, resources that could be used to further other health and social welfare goals.
RTI mortality in LMICs is massive: of an estimated 1·25 million road traffic deaths each year, 90% are in LMICs. Between 1990 and 2015, in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, RTI deaths per 100 000 reduced from an average of 22 to eight, while the rate in studied LMICs remained virtually the same. The burden of RTI mortality and long-term disability acutely affects those most likely to participate in the economy: according to a 2017 WHO fact sheet on road safety, people aged 15–44 years make up 48% of global road traffic deaths.
The report is an important step towards recognising RTIs not just as a personal tragedy but also as an opportunity for public health interventions. RTIs are a burden on society that affects problems as intimate as a family's increased medical costs and as broad as the diminution of a country's economic future. Tried and tested interventions exist. The USA and Europe saw substantial reductions in RTIs following a host of small changes: drink-driving laws, seat belts, and commitment to better road infrastructure, among others. The report's analysis is only a start, but it provides a roadmap for governments and development agencies to begin taking the burden of RTIs seriously ...
Language: en |