Most road crash victims aged 15-29 years: WHO

NEW DELHI: It's not suicide or HIV/AIDS that is the biggest killer of young people in the age-group of 15 to 29 years, rather maximum of them are getting killed in road traffic crashes, according to the latest global report released by World Health Organization ( WHO).

Going by the records, this age group constitutes over one-fourth of total number of persons killed (three lakh) in fatal road crashes across the world and at least one in every five such fatalities happens on Indian roads. Last year, over 50% of the people killed in road crashes in India (over 75,000) were below the age of 35 years.

WHO said in a statement that 1.25 million (12.5 lakh) people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes despite improvements in road safety. "Road traffic fatalities take an unacceptable toll - particularly on poor people in poor countries," WHO director general Margaret Chan said on Monday while releasing the Status Report of Road Safety.

The report based on the data from 180 countries in 2013 highlights how there is higher chance of people getting killed in roads in the low and middle income nations is much higher in comparison to the high income countries. For example, the road fatalities rate for one lakh population is 24.1 and 18.5 in low and middle income countries respectively; whereas in high income countries it's only 9.3 persons.

The third such report by WHO also shows that low and middle-income countries are hardest hit, with double the fatality rates of high-income countries and 90% of global road traffic deaths. The vulnerable road users - pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists - make up half of these fatalities with nearly a quarter of all road traffic deaths are among motorcyclists. This too is disproportionately distributed across the world - the South-East Asian Region and Western Pacific Region each account for 34% of the world's motorcyclist deaths.

"This reflects the continuing situation whereby the use of motorcycles is much higher in Asian countries than elsewhere," the report mentions.
Highlighting the need for creating adequate facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, the report has taken note of how the road infrastructure across countries is mainly constructed with the needs of motorists in mind despite 49% of all road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

While the report mentions measures taken by the different governments including comprehensive legislations for helmet, seatbelt, speeding and drunk, it points how enforcement is lacking in different parts of the world. For example, in India the enforcement of speeding, helmet and seatbelt wearing is less than five in a scale of zero to 10.