WHO sees road accidents killing more than many major diseases. Juliette Jowit reports.
In less than two decades, road traffic accidents are forecast to become the third biggest cause of death in the world. Yet despite the increasing gravity of the problem, there is growing concern that not enough is being done to improve road safety.
In an effort to put this right the FIA Foundation of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile has called on the UN to set up a taskforce to identify and spread the best policies to reduce road deaths.
The World Health Organisation estimates that nearly 1.2m people are killed annually in road accidents - more than four-fifths of them in developing countries. By 2020, the WHO predicts, road accidents will kill more people each year than HIV, diarrhoea, war or tuberculosis. Only heart disease and depression will kill more.
Large organisations such as Shell admit to losing more staff in road accidents than to any other cause. According to the Global Road Safety Partnership, a grouping of business, civil and governmental organisations, hospitals in many countries report that one in three beds is taken up by a road accident casualty.
The loss of labour and cost of treating deaths and serious injuries have been priced at €465m a year. Of this €90m is in developing countries - nearly equivalent to the total international aid in a year, says the partnership.
The FIA Foundation believes traffic accidents are now at epidemic proportions - but road safety is the Cinderella of global issues. It did not, for example, get a mention at last year's world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg, says David Ward, the foundation's director-general.
Experts have identified several reasons for the low profile: the un-newsworthiness of many small accidents, a tendency to see safety as a secondary issue rather than integral to design, the difficulty of co-ordinating safety programmes and the reluctance of politicians to take responsibility for the problem.
Many countries do not even have a road safety minister - here the remit falls under the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.
Last month when South Africa reported the highest Christmas season road death count for more than a decade, prompting calls for more traffic officers and a government minister to take charge of the issue.
The WHO will make road accidents the theme of next year's World Health Day - an event previously dedicated to polio, blood and mental health. But the FIA Foundation believes a UN taskforce is also needed to co-ordinate international efforts to promote the issue and encourage more countries to take action.
It would not have enforcement powers but would determine how countries with low accident rates have achieved this and urge other governments to adopt the best ideas.
Britain has the lowest death rate on the roads of any member country of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: 7.3 deaths per billion vehicle kilometres. Sweden is second with 8.34; the worst is Turkey with 120. Ireland recorded a figure of 13.1 in 1996.
The success of Britain and Sweden is attributed to a range of factors, including anti drink-driving campaigns, improved road design, signs, pedestrian and cycling facilities, the vehicles themselves and education programmes in schools.
PROJECTION TO 2020
Disease burden measure in disability adjusted life years.
RANK/ CAUSE
1 Ischaemic heart disease 5.9% of total.
2 Unipolar major depression 5.7%.
3 Road Traffic Accidents 5.1%.
4 Cerebrovascular disease 4.4%.
5 Chronic obs pulmonary disease 4.2%.
6 Lower respiatory infection 3.1 %.
7 Tuberculosis 3.0%.
8 War 3.0%.
9 Diarrhoeal diseases 2.7%.
10 HIV 2.6%.
Source: World Health Organisation