Just Published: Global status report on road safety 2015
The World Health Organization released today the Global status report on road safety 2015, reflecting information from 180 countries. This report, the ‘go to’ source of global road crash data and the measure of the Decade of Action for Global Road Safety 2011-2020, indicates that whilst worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, we are still not seeing the progress needed to meet the goals of the Decade. The report again shows that the highest road traffic fatality rates are in low-income countries.
In the last three years, 17 countries have aligned at least one of their laws with best practice on seat-belts, drink–driving, speed, motorcycle helmets or child restraints. There has also been progress towards improving road safety legislation and in making vehicles safer, however the pace of change is too slow. Urgent action is needed to achieve the ambitious target for road safety reflected in the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: halving the global number of deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by 2020. Made possible through funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, this report is the third in the series, and provides a snapshot of the road safety situation globally, highlighting the gaps and the measures needed to best drive progress.
