Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015

While the number of road deaths across the Globe is ‘stabilising’, road users in different parts of the world are unequally protected, according to this report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The report states that 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes, highlighting that the risk of dying in a road traffic crash still “depends, in great part, on where people live and how they move around”.

It suggests that a big gap still separates high-income countries from low and middle income ones, where 90% of road traffic deaths occur in spite of having just 54% of the world’s vehicles.

It also reveals that Europe, in particular the region’s wealthier countries, has the lowest death rates per capita, while Africa has the highest.

The report says the number of road traffic deaths is stabilizing even though the number of motor vehicles worldwide has increased rapidly, as has the global population. It says that in the last three years, 79 countries have seen a decrease in the absolute number of fatalities while 68 countries have seen an increase.

The report argues that 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.