Global road safety and the contribution of big business

Road safety policies must be based on evidence

Every day about 3000 people die and 30 000 are seriously injured on the world's roads.1 Most casualties are in countries that the World Bank classes as low and middle income countries, and a large proportion are vulnerable road users—pedestrians, cyclists, and riders of motorcycles and scooters. The World Bank believes that a partnership between business, non-governmental organisations, and governments in these countries can deliver improvements in road safety.2

In 1999, while announcing the global road safety partnership, James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, described road safety as “an issue of immense human proportions, an issue of economic proportions, an issue of social proportions and an issue of equity. Road safety very much affects poor people.”

The number of people killed or injured on the world's roads over the next two decades will depend on the changes that are made to transportation infrastructure …