WHO seeks to halve road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030

Road traffic crashes cause death and serious injury to millions of people around the world. People step out daily from their homes onto roads that take them to different places, but they never know that this could be the end of their journey in life. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) supports the political declaration to be adopted during the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on Global Road Safety. “The 2030 horizon for road safety: securing a decade of action and delivery” was the theme chosen for the meeting, which took place on June 30 to July 1, according to WHO.

In 2019, the UN launched the Road Safety Strategy, the objective of which is to reduce the number of road crashes by 50% by 2023. It has five pillars: road safety management, safer vehicles, safer road users, post-crash response, and safer driving environments, according to the UN.  

WHO reported that road crashes currently kill around 1.3 million people each year around the globe, more than 2 every minute, and more than 90% occur in low- and middle-income countries. It stated that road crashes are considered the main reason behind the death of children and young people. More than 50 million people have died on the world’s roads since the invention of the automobile, exceeding the number of deaths in World War I.

The political declaration is aimed at all governments adhering to policies and actions to reduce deaths and injuries, in addition to calling for the development of national and local plans with explicit targets and funding.

It is worth mentioning that the UN General Assembly adopted in September 2020 a resolution to announce the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. WHO and the UN regional commissions, in cooperation with other partners in the UN Road Safety Collaboration, have developed a Global Plan for the Decade of Action, which was released in October 2021, according to WHO.   

The Global Plan for the Decade of Action calls for ongoing development of the design of roads and vehicles, reinforcing laws, providing timely emergency care, as well as supporting healthy and environment-friendly transportation, WHO reported. 

Those countries that have been guided by the plan have noticed reductions in the rate of deaths. For example, the Colombian capital of Bogota cut road deaths by half over 10 years by applying a set of actions and regularly reforming roads and vehicles, according to WHO.