Features of Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries making Road Safety more Challenging

Abstract

Low- and Middle-Income Countries suffer the large majority (93%) of global road crash deaths and face particular challenges in managing this crisis. This paper presents global data and trends revealing underlying features of the problem for LMICs. LMICs are commonly grouped and described together in road safety commentaries, yet appreciation of the substantial differences between LICs and MICs is vital. While global deaths per 100,000 people have stabilized during the UN Decade of Road Safety, the population rate has increased in LICs (by 8.2%), while decreasing in HIC and MIC. LICs have less resources to address road safety and younger populations adding to risk. Wide variations on road safety performance exist within country income groups, with some of this variance occurring systematically between regions. Absolute numbers of deaths are increasing due to increasing population and increasing vehicle fleets in LMICs compared with HICs. The capacity of MICs, and especially LICs, to manage road safety is hampered by poor crash data to guide action as well less available funding and resources to achieve safer road engineering, safer vehicles, and protect the large proportions of vulnerable road users. Road crash deaths and injuries are retarding the economic growth of LMICs and investing road safety is a costeffective means by which LMICs can move towards becoming HICs. Vital opportunities for cost-effective savings of lives and debilitating injuries in LMICs include better management of speed (especially through infrastructure), improving safety infrastructure for pedestrians, increasing seatbelt use, and shifting travel from motorcycles to buses through provision of Bus Rapid Transit systems.

“We are pleading for the government to do more”: Road user perspectives on the magnitude, contributing factors, and potential solutions to road traffic injuries and deaths in Ghana

“…The vast majority (90%) of deaths occur in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although there is a staggering burden of RTCs, injuries, and deaths in LMICs [1,2], community participation in injury prevention is insufficient [1,3,4], potentially due to limited resources for injury prevention, and top-down approaches to decision-making [4][5][6]. Community engagement plays a pivotal role in global health and is widely believed to positively impact health and reduce inequalities [7][8][9].…”

Individual characteristics associated with road traffic collisions and healthcare seeking in low- and middle-income countries and territories

“…Whereas this information is essential to benchmark, develop efficient strategies to prevent injury, and ensure that healthcare is available to those who need it. Indeed, part of the explanation for why road safety remains low on the policy agendas of many LMICs may be that countries underestimate the scale of the problem [11,12].…”