Hyderabad: The UN General Assembly mandated WHO and the UN regional commissions to plan and host periodic UN Global Road Safety Weeks. This initiative was started in the year 2007. UN Global Road Safety Week (UNGRSW) is a biennial global road safety campaign hosted by WHO.
UN Global Road Safety Week 2021
The 6th UN Global Road Safety Week, held 17-23 May 2021, highlights the benefits of low-speed urban streets as the heart of any community. The Week calls on policy-makers to act for low-speed streets in cities worldwide, limiting speeds to 30 km/h (20 mph) where people live, work and play. Low-speed streets make for cities that are not only safe but also healthy, green, and liveable.
The objectives of the Week are to garner policy commitments at national and local levels to deliver 30 km/h speed limits and zones in urban areas; generate local support for such low-speed measures, and build momentum towards the launch of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 in late 2021 and the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly in 2022. Partners worldwide are invited to join the #Love30 campaign to build Streets for Life.
Numbers at a glance worldwide
Every year the lives of approximately 1.35 million people are cut short as a result of a road traffic crash. Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.
Road traffic injuries cause considerable economic losses to individuals, their families, and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment as well as lost productivity for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who need to take time off work or school to care for the injured. Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product.
More than 90% of road traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Road traffic injury death rates are highest in the African region. Even within high-income countries, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be involved in road traffic crashes.
Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years.
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From a young age, males are more likely to be involved in road traffic crashes than females. About three-quarters (73%) of all road traffic deaths occur among young males under the age of 25 years who are almost 3 times as likely to be killed in a road traffic crash as young females.
An increase in average speed is directly related both to the likelihood of a crash occurring and to the severity of the consequences of the crash. For example, every 1% increase in mean speed produces a 4% increase in the fatal crash risk and a 3% increase.
India's data released by World bank
With only 1 percent of the world's vehicles, India accounts for 11 percent of the global death in road accidents, the highest in the world, according to a report by the World Bank.
The country accounts for about 4.5 lakh road crashes per annum, in which 1.5 lakh people die.
India tops the world in road crash deaths and injuries. It has 1 percent of the world's vehicles but accounts for 11 percent of all road crash deaths, witnessing 53 road crashes every hour; killing 1 person every 4 minutes.
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In the last decade, 13 lakh people died, and another 50 lakh got injured on Indian roads, it said.
Considering the under-reporting phenomenon and using the crash ratios for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways crash numbers", the report estimates the crash costs at Rs 5.96 lakh crore or 3.14 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
A recent study commissioned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) estimates the socio-economic costs of road crashes at Rs 1,47,114 crore in India, which is equivalent to 0.77 percent of the country's GDP.
At the individual level, road crash injuries and deaths impose a severe financial burden and push entire (non-poor) households into poverty and the already poor into debt.
As per the Ministry, 76.2 percent of people who are killed in road crashes are in their prime working-age, 18-45 years.
Read: Four including three children die in Rajasthan accident
Courtesy: WHO Reports
