New Delhi (NVI): Around 1.35 million people die each year because of road traffic crashes, according to a recent Global status report on road safety by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The fact that an estimated 1.35 million lives are lost every year due to road traffic collisions is an outrage. It is an unacceptable price to pay for mobility,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Road traffic injuries are now the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5 to 29 years, according to WHO’s most recent Global status report on road safety.
A high-level meeting to discuss new steps to halve road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030, has been organised Stockholm, Sweden from 19-20 February, where Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will represent India’s commitment in this regard.
Ministers from over 100 countries will meet to agree on new global Road Safety agenda at the event.
More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, according to the WHO report. The risk of a road traffic death remains three times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries.
Moreover, as many as 50 million people experience non-fatal road injuries, which impose human suffering and major economic losses, according to the report.
