The IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report 2017 provides an overview of road safety performance for 2015 in 40 countries, with preliminary data for 2016, and detailed reports for each country. It includes tables with cross country comparisons on key safety indicators.

The report outlines the most recent safety data in IRTAD countries, including detailed analysis by road user, age group and type of road. It describes the crash data collection process in IRTAD countries, the road safety strategies and targets in place, and information on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour. The 2017 edition of the IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report puts special emphasis on road safety for an ageing population, which represents a growing concern in many countries.

Executive Summary

Road safety by age group

Since 1990, the reduction in fatalities has benefited all age groups, but the most impressive reduction concerns children aged 0 to 14 years (by almost 83%), as well as the groups of young people aged 15-17 and 18-20 (more than 76% and 83%, respectively). Despite substantial reductions, young people aged 18-24 are still a high-risk group, with a fatality rate nearly twice as high as that of the general population. Improvements were weaker for the senior population of those 65 years and older, with a reduction of only 45% when compared to 1990.

Since 2000, the situation has improved for all age groups, except for those 85 and over. However, since 2010 the situation has deteriorated for the over 65s (except a small decrease for the 75-84).

The analysis of developments since 2010 shows an improvement in youth mortality.

Findings

The positive trend over the last few years of reduced road fatalities did not continue in 2015 and 2016. The 31 IRTAD member countries for which data are consistently available registered a 3.3% increase in road fatalities in 2015 compared to 2014. In 2015, the number of road deaths increased in 21 countries compared to 2014. In 2016, the number of fatalities increased in 14 countries. Ten countries registered more road deaths for two consecutive years, i.e. in both 2015 and 2016.

Looking at the longer-term developments since 2010, the number of road deaths has decreased in all but three countries with validated data. Thirteen countries form a group of relatively well-performing countries with mortality rates per 100 000 inhabitants of five or less. Three of these had in 2015 mortality rate of three or less. Yet data for some IRTAD accession and observer countries suggest much higher rates, with more than 20 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants. These can be taken as an indicator for the situation in the many low and middle income countries not included in this report.

Road safety for an ageing population is a growing concern in nearly all countries. Older people are the world’s fastest-growing age group, and the share of people aged 60 or above is expected to reach 21% of the world population by 2050, up from 9% in 1994. At the same time, senior citizens have become more mobile than in the past and therefore more exposed to traffic risk.

This creates significant challenges for road safety. The share of old people killed in traffic is already larger than their share in the total population, and it is growing. Seniors have not benefited from improved road safety at the same pace as the general population in past years. While the number of road deaths declined by 6.5% overall between 2010 and 2015 across IRTAD countries, that of senior citizens killed in crashes increased by 3.4%. More than half of the road fatalities among seniors above 65 falls into the vulnerable road users category, i.e. concern older pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

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Injuries and violence are a major public health burden across the globe. The 13th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2018) will bring together over 1000 of the world’s leading researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and activists to share information and experiences and to discuss solutions. Conference major theme is “Advancing injury and violence prevention towards SDGs”

Global action is urgently required to prevent the needless deaths of thousands of children worldwide, where young lives are cut short or seriously impaired due to toxic air and unsafe streets, the Mayors of London and Accra, alongside international agencies and global experts said at the Child Health Initiative’s ‘Every Journey, Every Child’ conference at London City Hall.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joined the call for action and opened the Every Journey, Every Child conference, held at London City Hall on 4th October, commending the FIA Foundation on organising the event and for “doing so much to champion the cause of sustainable transport.”

He said: “It’s sickening to know that not a single area of London meets World Health Organisation health standards, but even worse than that, nearly 95% of the capital is exceeding these guidelines by at least 50% We should be ashamed that our young people – the next generation of Londoners – are being exposed to these tiny particles of toxic dust that are seriously damaging their lungs and shortening their life expectancy. Air pollution and climate change transcend national borders and city boundaries. In this interconnected world, the fates of cities like London and Accra are intertwined and the only way to respond to these global problems is with global solutions.”

Children from Townsend School in Southwark, London joined the Mayor and the other high-level participants at the conference. They performed a rap, calling for action on air pollution to protect their health. The school has been working with the FIA Foundation and the London Sustainability Exchange on air quality testing and schools based initiatives.

In a first contribution to the Declaration’s agenda, Mayor Khan, Mayor of Accra Mohammed Adjei Sowah, and FIA Foundation Chairman Lord Robertson signed up to the Breathe Life campaign. Breathe Life, a campaign of WHO, UN Environment and Climate and Clean Air Coalition aim to mobilize cities and individuals to protect public health and the planet from the effects of air pollution. The CHI Declaration supports ‘Breathe Life’ in its call to achieve safe air quality levels by 2030. The FIA Foundation is contributing to the campaign through its coordination of the Real Urban Emissions Initiative (TRUE – www.trueinitiative.org) which is measuring the real emissions of vehicles in London and Paris to inform policymakers and consumers.

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman, FIA Foundation, said: “We’re facing a global public health emergency for our children. It’s taking place right in front of us, on our streets. Yet the international community is failing to respond with anything like sufficient urgency. Here, in London, we have a mayor who is listening to children and intervening to protect their health, working to curb toxic emissions and ensure social justice for every child. The FIA Foundation urges every city to take action to tackle the twin epidemics of road traffic injury and air pollution.”

Zoleka Mandela, Global Ambassador for the Child Health Initiative addressed the conference following Mayor Sadiq Khan. She said:

“Worldwide, these fundamental children’s rights are being violated every single day. Put simply, as we send our children out on their daily journey to school we are risking their lives. They are trying to access education and we are killing them – with toxic pollution, with dangerous traffic. In the 21st century, this cannot be allowed to happen. We have the solutions, we can save lives on our streets. Our leaders must step up and act. For every child, for every life.”

Also on the opening panel was UN Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt. He said: “Let us not forget that at the heart of this issue are children. Children who have a basic right to step out of their front door and travel to school or to meet their friends safe from injury, safe from harm.”

Based on the Convention of the Right of the Child, the six articles of the Declaration calls for policymakers at all levels to support and implement the following priorities for every child:

• Action to ensure every child has a safe and healthy journey to school by 2030.

• Ensuring every child breathes clean air which a minimum meets WHO guidelines. The Declaration supports the ‘Breathe Life’ campaign to achieve safe air quality levels by 2030.
• Upholding every child’s right to an education without risk or injury.
• Promoting healthy streets. Prioritising people not cars. Encouraging walking, cycling and outdoor play to combat non-communicable diseases.
• Protection from violence both intended and unintended. Reducing urban traffic speeds to levels proven safe for children must be deployed as a priority action for child and adolescent health.
• Every child has a right to be heard. Their voices demanding the basic right to a safe environment must be acted upon globally.

Founding members of the Child Health Initiative alongside the FIA Foundation are UNICEF, UN Environment, Save the Children, Overseas Development Institute and the World Resources Institute. A range of international agencies, NGOs, experts and policymakers participated in the conference.

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See our tweets from the conference

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