Confronting “Death on Wheels”: Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia // Chapter 2: The Epidemic of Road Traffic Injuries

- RTI’s are growing, however this growth is in line with the spread of other diseases in developing nations. Passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists are the most in danger. This sounds more like a growing metropolitan issue.

- The World Bank and WHO predict that there will be an increase in RTI’s over the next twenty years.

- A considerable amount of these deaths are due to poor road condition and other infrastructure issues. In the CIS there are about three times as many RTI’s than the EU.

- Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation lead the RTI death rates in Who-Euro member nations in 2007 statistics. In later data, most of these deaths look like pedestrian and four-wheeled vehicles. Also, children and young adults die more frequently.
The report goes into some economic calculations on these deaths and tries to factor in other cost factors.

** Honestly I’m not finding this report that shocking. Children and young adults die more because they are not as hardy physically and some young adults may be behind the wheel themselves. Maybe I’m biased because I’ve lived in both types of US cities, one being very car oriented (Los Angeles, CA) and one being very pedestrian/light rail oriented (Portland, OR). I’ve almost been hit by cars walking and driving countless times due to various issues some infrastructure, some driver training, some my fault. I’ll contain the rest of my opinion until I finish the whole report.

report link