Transport for Health : The Global Burden of Disease from Motorized Road Transport

This report summarizes the findings of a
long and meticulous journey of data gathering and analysis
to quantify the health losses from road deaths and injuries
worldwide, as part of the path-finding Global Burden of
Disease (GBD) study. It is important, first, to acknowledge
the profound contribution made by the lead authors and
global team of injury prevention professionals to estimate
the disease burden of road trauma, before absorbing their
findings and recommendations. Without their dedication and
tenacity, the way forward would be less certain. The first
GBD study, published nearly two decades ago, signaled an
emerging road safety crisis in developing regions of the
world. It triggered a remarkable program of global advocacy
that culminated in the United Nations decade of action for
road safety and global plan to bring road safety outcomes
under control in these regions by 2020. However, limited
investment has been mobilized so far to implement the UN
initiative. The second GBD studies, and related analyses
presented in this report, confirm the importance of road
safety as a global development priority and the urgency with
which it must be addressed. The report's findings
highlight the growth in road deaths and injuries globally,
and their substantial impacts on maternal and child health,
despite sustained reductions over the last three to four
decades in high-income countries. Combined with the deaths
arising from vehicle pollution, the road transport death
toll exceeds that of, for example, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis,
malaria, or diabetes. This statistic further reinforces the
call for global action. Without these GBD estimates we would
not have a clear picture of the true situation because
official country data in the developing world vastly
understate the scale of road transport health losses.