Road safety

Transport is a vital part of everyday life, as well as economic growth and social development.

But every day, 3,300 people around the world are killed due to road traffic incidents. That is approximately 1.2 million people each year.

In addition to that, as many as 50 million people are injured or disabled by road traffic crashes every year.

The majority of road traffic deaths and injuries affect people in low and middle-income countries – where roads are often in poor repair usually as a result of decades of underinvestment – which are many of the countries where the EBRD works. Road traffic accidents cost countries up to 4 per cent of their Gross National Product every year. To say nothing of the immeasurable human loss and suffering.

The costs, both socially and economically, are too great to ignore. Road accidents are not inevitable – they can be prevented through investing in better roads, reducing risks and community awareness and education.

That’s why we at the EBRD are working harder than ever to make roads safer.

Did you know?

• Correctly used seat-belts reduce the risk of death in a crash by 61 per cent

• Mandatory use of child restraints can reduce child deaths by 35 per cent

• Helmets reduce fatal and serious head injuries by up to 45 per cent

• Enforcing a drinking and driving law around the world could reduce alcohol-related crashes by 20 per cent

• For every 1km/h reduction in average speed, there is a 2 per cent reduction in the number of crashes

• Simple low-cost engineering measures are saving thousands of lives