The WHO review noted that "Each year, more than 20,000 Thai people die from road crashes and many others are seriously injured and become permanently disabled. During 2011-2013, the annual average economic loss resulted from the road-traffic trauma of the country was 545,435 million Thai baht, representing 6% of the national GDP (TDRI 2017)."
reduced traffic and speed helps make roads safer
If there are stronger public-transport systems, which are comfortable, affordable, and accessible to all - rich and poor alike - then private-vehicle ownership will lose relevance. On the contrary, if we do not have strong public-transport systems then people will be forced to buy/ rent/ share and use private vehicles. Industry will want its sales to increase but this is neither sustainable nor going to make roads safer for anyone.
During Covid-19 lockdown last year, there was 50% reduction in road-traffic deaths in Thailand (compared to the previous five-year period) thereby saving lives of almost 1000 road users in just one month of April 2020. WHO added in its review that "We learned that reducing the volume of vehicles on the road, combined with reduced access to alcohol, can significantly reduce road traffic deaths and injuries."
road safety worldwide is a formidable challenge
Over 50 million people get injured and 1.35 million die every year due to road-traffic crashes worldwide. More alarming is the fact that 90 per cent of these injuries and deaths occur in developing countries. Road-traffic crashes are also the leading cause of death around the world for children and young people between 15 and 29 years of age. Over-speeding is identified as a major cause of almost 70% of these road-traffic crashes.
Another important milestone was in August 2020 when heads of governments at the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution with road-safety commitments in line with Stockholm Declaration for the next decade of 2021-2030. It is important to remember that one of the promises of past decade was to reduce the road-traffic-accident deaths and injuries by 50% by 2020. Many countries including Thailand have failed to keep this promise. On a positive side, governments have again resolved to reduce road-traffic-accident deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030. Only 117 months are left to keep this promise now.
Bobby Ramakant - CNS (Citizen News Service)
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