The United Nations and road safety: what is the connection?
- Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
- Correspondence to: T Toroyan Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, WHO, 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland;toroyant{at}who.int
Road safety is a public health issue. Indeed, when the mortality and morbidity for road traffic injuries are viewed alongside other causes of death and disability, it can be considered a public health crisis, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Last year more than 1.2 million people died, and between 20 and 50 million more were injured as a result of road traffic collisions; the costs accrued to health systems were enormous. Responding to trends suggesting that without appropriate action the global situation will only get worse, road safety experts have for some time been working to place the issue on the governments’ public health agendas, to elicit a response commensurate with the scale of the problem.
Notwithstanding the undisputed role of the health sector in reducing road traffic injuries, it is with multisectoral collaboration that road traffic injuries can be reduced most effectively. Experience has shown that effective and sustainable reductions require concerted effort by multiple partners …
