Global plan for the decade of action for road safety: Expectations from developing nations

Abstract

Globally, 1.24 million people die every year because of road traffic accidents (RTAs) and almost 20-50 million people sustain non-fatal injuries. Realizing the magnitude and the global distribution of the problem, the current decade 2011-2020 has been proclaimed as the Decade of Action for road safety, with a target of first stabilizing and then decreasing the estimated magnitude of morbidity and mortality by intensifying the global efforts on national and international platform. The primary step is to develop a surveillance network for data collection to identify the causative factors and estimate the accurate magnitude of RTA so that rational policy can be planned for achieving the best possible allocation of limited resources, especially in developing countries. Other measures such as creating public awareness; strict enforcement of road safety legislations; establishing prompt and good quality post-crash response; and establishing monitoring and evaluation system to assess the outcome of implemented measures can be strategically implemented to counter the burden of road traffic accidents.