Nearly 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes, according to the World Health Organization’s Global status report on road safety 2015, despite improvements in road safety.
“Road traffic fatalities take an unacceptable toll – particularly on poor people in poor countries,” said Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of the organization, WHO website reported.
The WHO report highlights that road users around the world are unequally protected. The risk of dying in a road mishap still depends, in great part, on where people live and how they move around. A big gap still separates high-income countries from low and middle- income ones where 90% of road traffic deaths occur in spite of having just 54% of the world’s vehicles. Europe, in particular the region’s wealthier countries, has the lowest death rates per capita; Africa the highest.
