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- Wismans, Jac, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Commentary: Status of road safety in Asia
- 2016
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In: Traffic Injury Prevention. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1538-9588 .- 1538-957X. ; 17:3, s. 217-225
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Assess the status of road safety in Asia and present accident and injury prevention strategies based on global road safety improvement experiences. Discuss the way forward by indicating opportunities and countermeasures that could be implemented to achieve a new level of safety in Asia. Methods: Review and analyses of data in the literature, among others from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Bank and review of lessons learned from best practices in high-income countries. Estimation of costs due to road transport injuries in Asia and review of future trends in road transport. Results: Data on the Global and Asian road safety problem and status of prevention strategies in Asia as well as recommendations for future actions. The total number of deaths due to road accidents in the 24 Asian countries, encompassing 56% of the total world population, is 750.000 per year (statistics 2010). The total number of injuries are more than 50 million, of which 12% are hospital admissions. The loss to the economy in the 24 Asian countries is estimated to around 800 billion US$ or 3.6% of GDP. Conclusions: This paper clearly shows that road safety is causing large problems and costs in Asia with an enormous impact on the well-being of people, economy and productivity. In many of the Asian low- and middle-income countries the yearly number of fatalities and injuries is still further increasing. Vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motor cyclist combined) are particularly at risk. Road safety in Asia should be given rightful attention, including taking powerful, effective actions. This review stresses the need for reliable accident data, since there is a large underreporting in the official statistics. Reliable accident data are imperative to determine evidence based intervention strategies and monitor the success of these interventions and analyses. On the other hand, lack of good high quality accident data should not be an excuse to postpone interventions. There are many opportunities for evidence-based transport safety improvements, including measures concerning the five key risk factors: speed, drunk–driving, not wearing motorcycle helmets, not wearing seat-belts and not using child restraints in cars, as specified in the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020. In this commentary, a number of new additional measures are proposed which are not covered in the Decade of Action Plan. These new measures include separate roads or lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, helmet wearing for e-bike riders, special attention to elderly persons in public transportation, introduction of emerging collision avoidance technologies in particular automatic emergency braking (AEB) and alcohol locks, improved truck safety focussing on the other road user (including blind spot detection technology, under-ride protection at the front, rear and side and energy absorbing fronts) and improvement of motorcycle safety concerning protective clothing, requirements for advanced braking systems, improved visibility of motorcycles by using day-time running lights and better guard rails.
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| 2. |
- Wismans, Jac, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Implications of Road Safety in National Productivity and Human Development in Asia
- 2014
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Fatalities and injuries due to road transport have an enormous impact on the well-being of people, economy and productivity. Therefore Road Safety is one of the core elements of a sustainable transport system as is reflected in the 2013 Bali Declaration, which introduced the “Vision Three Zeros ‐ Zero Congestion, Zero Pollution, and Zero Accidents”. The latest WHO and IMHE-World Bank publications estimate that yearly around 1.3 million deaths due to road accidents occur worldwide. Almost 80 million are injured of which more than 9 million would need hospital admissions with often long-term disabilities as a consequence. If also indirect deaths caused by air pollution from motorized transport are included the total number of deaths exceeds 1.5 million corresponding to over 4000 lost lives per day. The objectives of this paper are to: Review and summarize the most recent and relevant information on the global road safety problem and its impact on productivity. The focus is on the Asian EST region currently consisting of 24 countries including the two most populated areas in the world - China and India. Present accident and injury prevention strategies based on experience and effectiveness in developed countries and their potential for implementation in Asia. Discuss the way forward by summarizing the most relevant opportunities to prevent road fatalities and injuries in the Asian EST region and thus how road safety can contribute to achieve the Bali Vision- Zero Accidents. The size of the road safety problem in the 24 Asian EST is evident from several numbers: the total number of estimated deaths in the region due to road accidents is 750,000 per year based on WHO and IMHE/World Bank estimates. The total number of injuries is more than 50 million (of which 12% are hospital admissions), corresponding to 2/3 of all injuries worldwide, while 56% of the world’s population lives in the 24 Asian EST countries. The number of indirect deaths due to air pollution caused by motorized transport is almost 100,000 with a relatively large share from India. The death rate (fatalities per 100,000 population) is in many of the Asian EST countries more than twice as high as in Europe. Vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motor cyclists combined) are at particular risk. They constitute 60% of the deaths due to road accidents in Asian EST countries and in many of the low and middle income countries in this region this percentage is even higher. The total costs of injuries in the Asian EST countries, calculated as a loss to the economy, is estimated to 735 billion US$ or 3.3% of GDP. In 8 countries (Bangladesh Bhutan, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam) it is even more than 4% of the GDP. In many of the Asian EST low and middle income countries the yearly number of fatalities and injuries is still further increasing while in several high income countries these numbers are decreasing. One problem seen in many countries is the large underreporting in the official country statistics which are usually based on police data. The WHO and IMHE/World Bank estimates for the numbers of fatalities in the Asian EST region are more than twice the values from the official data from the respective countries. This large national underreporting stresses the need for reliable accident data. These are necessary to understand the causes of accidents, to determine evidence based intervention strategies and also for monitoring the success of these interventions. On the other hand lack of good accident data is not an excuse not to implement good practices based on experiences from other countries.
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| 3. |
- Wismans, Jac, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Road safety implications and opportunities for regions under increasing motorization
- 2016
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In: 17th International Conference Road Safety On Five Continents (RS5C 2016), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17-19 May 2016.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper compiles, evaluates and analyses information from different data sources on accidents andhealth, road transport and economic performance in a comprehensive manner to assess the size andimpact of road accidents and injuries in regions under increasing motorization. Strategies based onglobal road safety improvement experiences are presented. In addition the paper aims at discussing away forward by indicating opportunities and countermeasures that could be implemented to achieve anew level of safety in these regions. The data used comes from e.g. World Health Organization (WHO)and World Bank. Estimations on costs due to road transport injuries are presented. The results clearlydemonstrate that road safety is causing large problems and costs with an enormous impact on the wellbeingof people, economy and productivity. For example, according to our analysis, the loss to theeconomy in Latin America is more than 130 billion US$ or 2.8 % of GDP.In many of low and middle-income countries the yearly number of fatalities and injuries is stillincreasing. Vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motor cyclists) are particularly at risk.Reliable accident data are imperative to determine evidence based intervention strategies and monitorthe success of these interventions and analyses. When comparing data it is clear that there are largeproblems in official statistics in several countries. The lack of good high quality accident data should,however, not be an excuse to postpone measures.Future trends in road transport and lessons learned from best practices in high-income countries arereviewed. The paper also proposes measures beyond the Decade of Action Plan for Road Safety 2011-2020, with respect to vulnerable road users, infrastructure, vehicle technology and truck and bus safetyand discusses the implications for road safety in the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals.
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| 4. |
- Wismans, Jac, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Implications of Road Safety in National Productivity and Human Development in Asia
- 2014
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In: Eighth Regional EST Forum in Asia 19-21 November 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka. ; , s. 1-51
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Fatalities and injuries due to road transport have an enormous impact on the well-being of people, economy and productivity. Therefore Road Safety is one of the core elements of a sustainable transport system as is reflected in the 2013 Bali Declaration, which introduced the “Vision Three Zeros ‐ Zero Congestion, Zero Pollution, and Zero Accidents”. The latest WHO and IMHE-World Bank publications estimate that yearly around 1.3 million deaths due to road accidents occur worldwide. Almost 80 million are injured of which more than 9 million would need hospital admissions with often long-term disabilities as a consequence. If also indirect deaths caused by air pollution from motorized transport are included the total number of deaths exceeds 1.5 million corresponding to over 4000 lost lives per day. The objectives of this paper are to: Review and summarize the most recent and relevant information on the global road safety problem and its impact on productivity. The focus is on the Asian EST region currently consisting of 24 countries including the two most populated areas in the world - China and India. Present accident and injury prevention strategies based on experience and effectiveness in developed countries and their potential for implementation in Asia. Discuss the way forward by summarizing the most relevant opportunities to prevent road fatalities and injuries in the Asian EST region and thus how road safety can contribute to achieve the Bali Vision- Zero Accidents. This paper concludes with recommendations on how the safety situation in the Asian EST countries can be improved and in particular within the developing countries. This is done by stressing a number of the most important recommendations from the 2011-2020 Decade of Action for Road Safety and by a number of recommendations directly following from the review in this paper. The recommendations are grouped within the 5 pillars of the Decade of Action: Road safety management, Safer roads and mobility, Safer vehicles, Safer road users and Post-crash response. The WHO recommendations include, among others, the following ones which have shown to be effective in many countries and which can be introduced on a relative short term: • Implementation of UN vehicle safety regulations and new car assessment programmes (NCAPs). • Implementation of measures concerning the 5 risk factors: speed, drunk–driving, not wearing motorcycle helmets, not wearing seat-belts and not using child restraints. Additional specific recommendations resulting from this paper deal with safe public transport, utilisation of ICT for safety improvement, separate lanes for Non-Motorized Traffic (NMT), maintenance of roads, introduction of collision avoidance technologies in vehicles (including compulsory alcohol locks), truck safety in crashes with other road users, measures to improve motorcycle safety (ABS, protective clothing, visibility) and recommendations concerning safety of pedestrians, cyclists and elderly road users. Finally it is recommended that when introducing any measure a “base-line” status is established and means to track progress and effectiveness. Few of the recommendations mentioned in this paper can act in isolation – enhanced road safety is the result of a persistent systems approach and collaboration towards a shared challenging goal.
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