London,UK -The Economist/Automotive Digest -July 23, 2007: -- Situation1. World Health Organization: 1.2M deaths annually, 50M injuries in road accidents
2. Cites dangerous drivers, rickety vehicles, poor road maintenance/design
3. Also fatalistic attitudes, poor emergency services, loose/corrupt law enforcement
4. Estimates cost at $518B globally per year, combined cost of about 1%-2% of GDP
5. Problem fix: enforced speed limits, helmet laws, good road design, more driving tests
6. Projects 67% casualty increase from now to 2020, 83% in low-, middle-income countries
Significant Points
1. Accident rates highest in Africa, parts of eastern Mediterranean
2. So dangerous that diplomats, others barred from driving at night in some developing countries
3. Some big oil companies lose more employees to road crashes than to industrial accidents
4. Southeast Asia countries, France show that improvement possible
5. Helmet use up in southeast Asia, casualties cut by 20% in France after road safety campaign
6. Coalition of public, private entities launching campaign to encourage action by politicians
* USA - Safety First? True Once, but U.S. Now Lags in Road Deaths
NY,USA -The New York Times, by TANYA MOHN -July 22, 2007: -- Driving has never been safer. Cars, which once had just one air bag, can now have six or more, and there are crumple zones to protect occupants in a crash and electronic stability control to avoid crashes in the first place. There are run-flat tires and antilock brakes. The rate of highway fatalities has plummeted since 1970, when the United States led the world in road safety... Still, despite its head start and that cocoon of technology, the nation has steadily slipped behind other countries, becoming comparatively one of the most dangerous places to drive in the industrialized world... The United States ranks 42nd of the 48 countries measured in the number of fatalities per capita, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Transport Forum. Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Japan all did significantly better... And in what many safety experts consider a more precise measure, fatalities per distance driven, the United States was No. 1 in 1970 with the lowest death rate among industrialized countries reporting data. It now ranks 11th, with some countries reporting rates that are 25 percent lower...
Labels: dangerous roads
