Evaluation of the five-year Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. In Russia, a road safety program was implemented in Lipetskaya and Ivanovskaya oblasts (regions) as part of a 10-country effort funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The program was focused on increasing seat belt and child restraint use and reducing speeding. The primary goals of this monitoring and evaluation study are to assess trends in seat belt use, child restraint use, and speed compliance in the two oblasts over the 5 years and to explore the overall impact of the program on road traffic injury and death rates. Primary data via roadside observations and interviews, and secondary data from official government sources were collected and analyzed for this study. Our results indicate significant improvements in seat belt wearing and child seat use rates and in prevalence of speeding in both intervention oblasts. The observations were consistent with the results from the roadside interviews. In Lipetskaya, restraint use by all occupants increased from 52.4% (baseline, October 2010) to 77.4% (final round, October 2014) and child restraint use increased from 20.9% to 54.1% during the same period. In Ivanovskaya, restraint use by all occupants increased from 48% (baseline, April 2012) to 88.7% (final round, October 2014) and child restraint use increased from 20.6% to 89.4% during the same period. In Lipetskaya, the overall prevalence of speeding (vehicles driving above speed limit) declined from 47.0% (baseline, July 2011) to 30.4% (final round, October 2014) and a similar pattern was observed in Ivanovskaya where the prevalence of speeding decreased from 54.6% (baseline, March 2012) to 46.6% (final round, October 2014). Through 2010-2014, the road traffic crash and injury rates per 100,000 population decreased in Lipetskaya oblast (191.5 and 246.9 in 2010 and 170.4 and 208.6 in 2014, respectively) and slightly increased in Ivanovskaya oblast (184.4 and 236.0 in 2010 and 186.7 and 243.4 in 2014, respectively). These road safety improvements are associated with the program that enabled a combined focus on policy reform, legislation, enforcement, advocacy, education, and data collection and use. However, the existence of other road safety efforts, lack of data from comparable regions, and unavailability of risk factor-specific data make it difficult to attribute these changes to the program.

Affordability and Availability of Child Restraints in an Under-Served Population in South Africa

“…Studies from other low-income countries have shown that road safety programs which combine policy, enforcement, education and advocacy can be effective in increasing the rate of both seatbelt and child restraint usage. In Lipetskaya, child restraint usage increased from 20.9% to 51.4% from baseline to four years after program implementation [44].…”

Impact of the program life in traffic and new zero-tolerance drinking and driving law on the prevalence of driving after alcohol abuse in Brazilian capitals: An interrupted time series analysis

“…The RS-10 initiative is funded by the Bloomberg Foundation and the participating countries' own resources, and is coordinated globally by the World Health Organization and its regional agencies. The objective of RS-10 was to support the governments of low-and middle-income countries to incorporate road safety measures into their national policies, thus contributing to reducing the magnitude of RTI [7][8][9][10]. Despite the differences among the countries, RS-10 activities include the safety of drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians, through legislation change and enforcement; health education actions in traffic; training of police and/or public health officials to implement and monitor the impact of the initiative; improvement of databases related to RTI and its risk factors; identification of determinants for RTI and deaths; carrying out periodic inspections of alcohol and driving and excessive and/or inappropriate speed; holding selected public events and media strategies to disseminate the dangers of alcohol, incentives in the purchase of blood alcohol and over speed monitoring equipment, among others.…”

“…There is a gap in the literature on the impacts of PLT and NDL on the prevalence of driving under the influence of alcohol. International studies evaluating the PLT focused on the analysis of final indicators, such as the mortality rate and hospitalization for RTI, or other intermediate indicators, such as seat belt use and over speed driving [10,17]. In Brazil, only one study was identified that analyzed the impacts of PLT in five Brazilian cities, showing a reduction in the mortality rate indicators in three and in the prevalence of drivers with positive BAC in two [11].…”

Lives Saved in Low- and Middle-Income Countries by Road Safety Initiatives Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Implemented by Their Partners between 2007–2018

“…In order to assess the benefits of these interventions, a range of observational site-based evaluations have also been funded under the program. Evaluation has shown reductions in risk factors in speeding and increased seatbelt and child-restraint use in regions of Russia [ 36 , 46 ]; an increase in helmet use in provinces of Viet Nam [ 42 ]; and an increase in seatbelt use but uneven improvements in speeding in the provinces of Turkey [ 47 ]. Evaluations at the city level have shown a decrease in the prevalence of drink driving and speeding in China [ 19 ].…”