EU-ASIA Individual Meeting

Bangkok - 11 Dec 2019 Road safety is a sustainable development challenge for the whole world. The global road traffic fatalities and fatality rates remain unacceptably high as an estimated 1.35 million road crash fatalities occurred in 2016 which was about 3,700 fatalities a day. Globally, road crashes are the 8th leading cause of death for people of all ages and number one cause of death for children and young adults 5-29 years of age. However, the rate of road traffic fatalities remained constant since the beginning of the millennium, which was about 18 fatalities per 100,000 population. However, the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 emphasized that as progress is made in prevention and control of infectious diseases, the relative contribution of deaths from noncommunicable diseases and injuries continued to increase during the last decades. Globally an estimated three per cent of GDP is lost due to road traffic crashes. Social impacts of the road crashes are also very high. The ESCAP region accounted for 60 per cent of the global road crash fatalities in 2016. Moreover, the Vulnerable Road User fatalities are a major concern for the region. The Global Status Reports on Road Safety published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 and 2018 included global status of road safety for 2013 and 2015, respectively. The report published in 2018 included road safety related data from 44 ESCAP members and associate members. The Sustainable Transport Section, Transport Division of ESCAP conducted comprehensive analyses of the road safety country data for the ESCAP region and subregions. 1) Two infographics were prepared to visually present the findings of the study.◾ Road traffic deaths have increased by 10% in the Asia-Pacific region (2013-2016)◾ Key risk factors and road traffic deaths by user types in the Asia-Pacific region Data Source: Global Status Reports on Road Safety 2015 and 2018 by the World Health Organization (WHO) 2) Study reports were prepared with the analytical data, key findings and recommendations.◾ Road Safety in the Asia-Pacific Region◾ Strategies to Tackle the Issue of Impaired Driving for Road Safety in the Asia-Pacific Region: Implementation Framework◾ Strategies to Tackle the Issue of Speed for Road Safety in the Asia-Pacific Region: Implementation Framework Link to article : https://www.unescap.org/announcement/road-safety-status-asia-pacific-region#