Road safety in high income countries -historical background

 On the opening day of the general debate of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly ( September 2012) , Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff gave a speech in which she applauded the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, drawing attention to Brazil’s engagement in the Decade and actions to protect lives on the nation’s roads. Finally road safety is a worldwide issue, not only in high-income countries.

Please find below a historical background comparison in selected high-income countries:  In Sweden ( around 9 million), a positive reduction of fatalities can be shown from the mid-60s until today. During a period of forty years, the number of fatalities had reduced by nearly 70% from 1313 persons in 1966 to 471 persons in 2007 ( in 1998, the number of fatalities was 540). Sweden has a very high degree of safety in comparison with most other countries namely less than 6 deaths per 100000 inhabitants.

West Germany ( around 60 million) lost around 25000 victims on the roads in 1980. United Germany ( around 83 million) lost 4700 victims in 2007. So, the death toll decreased 80 %.

Canada ( around 33 million) lost around 6000 victims on the roads in 1970. Canada lost around 2889 victims in 2006. So, the death toll decreased more than 50 %.

Italy ( around 58 million ) lost around 12000 victims on the roads in 1970. Italy lost around 5669 victims in 2006. So, the death toll decreased more than 45 %.

France ( around 60 million) lost around 17000 victims on the roads in 1973. France lost 4500 victims in 2010. So, the death toll decreased 70 %.

 Around  Same period in most low income- countries, we increased our death toll around three times...
why?why?
We need to get accountable all those who are causing these tragedies on our roads... This positive development in road safety ( Sweden, Canada, …) can be credited to decades of a systematic traffic safety work.      

 prepared by M. Ziad Akl- President YASA international