Death and injury on roads

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7558.53

BMJ 2006;333:53-54 (8 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7558.53

Editorial

Death and injury on roads

Lowering the road toll will take much more than altering roadusers' behaviour

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 2002 a theme issue of the BMJ focused on the unacceptable,and largely neglected, global toll of road traffic crashes.¹The subsequent report by the World Health Organization highlightedthat low and middle income countries bear the brunt of thisburden, accounting for more than 85% of the deaths and 90% ofdisability adjusted life years lost from road crashes.² In contrast,many high income countries (including the United Kingdom) wereshown to have sharply reduced their rates of road crashes inrecent decades, exemplifying what could be achieved.

It is tempting to bask in the glory of such creditable achievements,but, as always, the devil is in the detail. A heterogeneousand unplanned collection of three papers appearing in this week'sBMJ^3-5 and one being published on line⁶ provides a timely reminderof the extent to which the potential to prevent road trafficinjury remains a challenge, . . . [Full text of this article]

Shanthi Ameratunga, director, Injury Prevention Research Centre

School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
(s.ameratunga@auckland.ac.nz)

Rod Jackson, professor of epidemiology

School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

Robyn Norton, professor of public health

University of Sydney, George Institute for International Health, PO Box M201, NSW 2050, Australia

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