Global Status Report

19 October 2015

The World Health organization has released a new Global Road Safety Status Report on Road Safety (2015).  It is an important milestone which monitors the worldwide progress made on preventing road traffic injuries.

“Road traffic fatalities take an unacceptable toll – particularly on poor people in poor countries,” says Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. “We’re moving in the right direction,” adds Dr Chan. “The report shows that road safety strategies are saving lives. But it also tells us that the pace of change is too slow.” 

Some 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes, according to the World Health Organization’s Global status report on road safety 2015, despite improvements in road safety. With more than 300.000 deaths a year, road traffic injuries remain the nuber 1 cause of death among people aged 15-29 years.

This new report from the World Health Organization finds that poor people in poorer countries are bearing the brunt of the global road traffic injury epidemic, even as the overall global number of deaths appears to stabilise.