Global traffic accidents costs US$1,850 billion a year

The 2nd global High-level Conference on Road Safety has declared that the human suffering from traffic accidents is estimated at US$1,850 billion a year.

The Brasilia Declaration from the just ended conference expressed concern that road crashes were the leading causes of death around the world for children and youth aged 15-19 years.

It notes that that more than two thirds of the road traffic victims are males.

The Declaration states that appropriate multi-sectoral international cooperation and multi-sectoral action is necessary to realize the objective of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 to stabilize and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world.

The Declaration also noted that the overwhelming majority of road traffic deaths and injuries were predictable and preventable.

This is besides pointing out that at the midpoint of the Decade of Action much remained to be done, despite some progress and some improvements in many countries, including developing ones.

The Declaration has however recognized that only focusing on road users as a cause of crashes is inappropriate and insufficient.

It says this is because crashes resulted from multiple causes, many of which were linked to social determinants and risk factors.

The Declaration has reaffirmed that providing basic conditions and services to address road safety was primarily a responsibility of governments.

This is contained in a statement made available to Qfm News by first secretary for press at the Zambian mission in Brazil Patson Chilemba.