The Global Road Safety Partnership and Lessons in Multisectoral Collaboration

Abstract

"The world is witnessing an unprecedented increase in demand for motorized vehicles, particularly in rapidly developing economies such as China and India. Per capita GDP growth creates a demand for faster modes of passenger and freight transport. Additionally, increasing motorized mobility fosters a feedback loop in which the need for better roads propels expansion of infrastructure assets, which in turn drives GDPS While motorization and enhanced mobility have positive impacts on individual lives and national GDP, without appropriate strategies to improve road safety, road accidents and deaths are becoming an ever-increasing problem. According to a World Health Organization (WHO)/World Bank jointly produced report, road traffic injuries were the 11th leading cause of death in 2002. However, without appropriate action, the WHO estimates that by 2020 they will outpace AIDS, malaria, and war as the world's third largest public health challenge after ischemic heart disease and unipolar major depression. In addition to road deaths, it is estimated that between 30 and 45 injuries occur for every road death, many involving permanent disability and high lifetime costs of ongoing care, support, and lost earnings. Developing countries are, and will continue to be, the hardest hit. Road accident injury and death also pose a significant monetary cost. The most productive age group (15-44 years), often in the lowest income sector, accounts for the highest injury and death rate. The combined costs of health care, loss of income, and funeral costs can have a ruinous effect on both households and communities. At a macroeconomic level, the WHO estimates that road traffic injuries cost low-and middle-income countries between 1% and 2% of their gross national product and carry approximately a US$65 billion price tag in developing countries, outstripping the amount these nations receive in development assistance. A link between increased demand for vehicles and road accidents has been noted at the early stages of motorization in developed countries. This generally peaks and tends to level off. The increased injury trend levels off, however, as a result of government regulation, enforcement, safer vehicles, better infrastructure, a culture of safer road use behavior, and education. Developing countries are now going through similar cycles, but due to population size and other factors, the fatality burden remains substantial. A key challenge for governments and other actors is to share and implement the public policy lessons, technologies, and institutional innovations that have underpinned safety improvements in developed countries to attenuate the evolving trends in developing countries rapidly and proactively."