Press Release EURO/02/04
Copenhagen, Rome, 6 April 2004

Road traffic injuries kill as many as 350 people per day, or over 127 000 every year in the WHO European Region. It is as if a catastrophic event killed the population of a middle-sized city each year. At least 2.4 million people are injured and disabled in road traffic crashes annually. Out of over 2 million car crashes per year, nearly 65% occur in towns, where pedestrians and cyclists are particularly exposed. This evidence on road death tolls is contained in the World report on road traffic injury prevention, to be released by WHO and the World Bank on 7 April, World Health Day, and in Preventing road traffic injury: a public health perspective for Europe, prepared by the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

The scale of death and disability caused by traffic injuries makes them a leading public health issue. Yet death and injury on the roads are not random events. Understanding what risk factors lead to crashes and how to prevent them is the main objective of the European study. It identifies the measures that are known to work and highlights the gap between knowledge and its implementation.

"It is time to stop considering traffic deaths and injuries as an unavoidable consequence of road use: they are preventable. Every year some 6500 children die on the roads, and this is unacceptable," says Dr Marc Danzon, WHO Regional Director for Europe. "Increasing road traffic safety is everyone's concern. Transport planners, car manufacturers, and health authorities and professionals have an important role to play in protecting the human right to health."

Speed is the leading killer on the roads. Estimates for the European Union (EU) indicate that reducing the average driving speed by 3 km/h would save around 5000-6000 lives each year and would prevent 120 000-140 000 crashes, saving €20 billion in crash costs. In contrast, raising the speed from 30 km/h to 50 km/h increases a pedestrian's risk of being killed in a car crash eightfold. For car occupants, the risk of death in a crash is 20 times higher at an impact speed of 80 km/h than at 32 km/h.

In the WHO European Region, children and young people pay the highest price. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-29 years. This group accounts for more than 30% of crash victims. In this age group, young men represent 80% of the total number of victims. High speed and drink-driving are the main risk factors for them.

Although attributing a cost to the loss of human lives is hard, estimates show that, in some countries, economic loss from road traffic injuries accounts for about 2% of gross domestic product. For the EU, this means some €180 billion per year. According to Preventing road traffic injury: a public health perspective for Europe, the countries of central and eastern Europe are even more severely affected than western Europe, and deaths and injuries are likely to rise even further there, as the number of vehicles on the roads increases.

The high health burden of road traffic injuries adds to other adverse health effects related to transport, such as those resulting from air pollution, noise, increasingly sedentary lifestyles and global climate change.

Road traffic safety is part and parcel of sustainable transport and a core issue for the health sector. The key question tackled by the European study is how public health can serve the common objective of creating a healthy transport system and saving lives.

The two WHO reports emphasize two pillars of the new thinking about road safety:

• to refuse to accept death and severe injuries as consequences of traffic crashes; and
• to adapt the roads to people's vulnerability.

The challenge now is to galvanize the countries in the WHO European Region to adopt this new thinking. "The dedication of World Health Day 2004 to road safety is an opportunity to become aware of the death toll weighing on our communities, and of the successful application of new thinking in some Member States. This shows that strong political commitment and comprehensive measures pay off in health gains," concludes Dr Roberto Bertollini, Director, Division of Technical Support, Health Determinants, WHO Regional Office for Europe.

The two reports, World report on road traffic injury prevention and Preventing road traffic injury: a public health perspective for Europe will be available online on World Health Day, 7 April 2004.

For more information contact:

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Ms Francesca Racioppi
Technical Officer, Transport, Environment and Health
WHO European Centre for Environment and Health
Via Francesco Crispi 10, I-00187 Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39 06 4877545. Fax: +39 06 4877599
E-mail: frr@who.it

PRESS INFORMATION:

Ms Liuba Negru
Press and Media Relations Officer
WHO Regional Office for Europe
Scherfigsvej 8, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Tel.: +45 39 17 13 44. Fax: +45 39 17 18 80
E-mail: lne@euro.who.int

Ms Cristiana Salvi
Technical Officer, Communication and Advocacy
WHO European Centre for Environment and Health
Via Francesco Crispi 10, I-00187 Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39 06 4877543. Mobile: +39 348 0192305
Fax: +39 06 4877599. E-mail: csa@who.it