Facts about road safety:

• Road crashes cause untold personal suffering and have a devastating social and economic effect on low- and middle-income countries, communities and families.
• More than 1.2 million people die each year on the world’s roads, and between 20 and 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. In most regions of the world this epidemic of road traffic injuries is still increasing.
• Over 90% of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.
• Death rates have been declining over the last four to five decades in many high-income countries, but even there, road traffic injuries remain an important cause of death, injury and disability.
• Almost half of those who die in road traffic crashes are pedestrians, cyclists or motorcyclists – i.e. vulnerable road users. This proportion is higher in the poorer economies of the world.
• The adoption and enforcement of traffic laws appears inadequate in many countries.
• Globally, it’s estimated that road crashes cost roughly $65 billion (US) each year.
• The cost of road crashes on country economies is often as high as 2 to 3 percent of GNP, often higher than the amount received in foreign aid.
• Road crashes take up much-needed health care resources in communities often suffering from other severe health issues.
• WHO predicts that road trafic injuries will rise to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.

Source: WHO - Global status report on road safety (2009)