India among top 3 countries with highest road deaths in Southeast Asia: WHO

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India, Indonesia, and Myanmar are the top 3 countries with the highest road deaths in South-East Asia, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on road safety launched on Monday.

The report ‘WHO South-East Asia Regional Status Report on Road Safety: Towards Safer and Sustainable Mobility' was launched at the 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) being held in the national capital.

The report outlines road traffic injury patterns in SE Asian countries and highlights best practices and country-specific interventions. It showed that India had the highest reported road traffic deaths -- 1,53,972 -- in the year 2021, followed by Indonesia (25,266), and Myanmar (5,325).

India also reported the highest road traffic injuries (3,84,448) in the year 2021, followed by Indonesia (128,466 road injuries), and Nepal (94,665). "Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and two or three-wheelers constitute 66 per cent of all reported road traffic deaths in our Region," said Saima Wazed, regional director, WHO South-East Asia, in her keynote address.

"Our roads and road networks need to be designed prioritising those most at risk: children and adolescents, people with disabilities, pedestrians, and other vulnerable groups," Wazed said.

The report revealed that the WHO SE Asia Region accounted for 330,223 of the 1.19 million estimated global road traffic deaths in 2021, representing 28 per cent of the global burden. India was also among the top three countries with the highest road traffic deaths per 100,000 population, the report said.

Thailand (25.9 deaths per 100,000 population), Sri Lanka (11.7 deaths per 100,000 population), and India (11.6 deaths per 100,000 population) reported more than 10 road traffic deaths per 100,000 persons in the year 2021.

Maldives reported the lowest road traffic death rate (0.9 per 100,000 population) in the year 2021. The UN health agency called on countries in the region to accelerate measures to reduce road traffic deaths, a leading cause of mortality among young people aged 15-29. While the region saw a 2 per cent decrease in road fatalities in 2021, contributing to a global 5 per cent reduction, further efforts are needed to meet global targets, the report said.

"Road safety is one of the major concerns, and India has committed to reducing road injuries by 50 per cent, halving them by 2030," said Dr Jagnoor Jagnoor, Head, Injury Programme, at The George Institute for Global Health, at the event.

"While more is being done towards having seat belts and considering star rating and features within the automobile industry, our vulnerable road users are basically the pedestrians and bicyclists, and far more needs to be done for them". She also pointed out the need to consider what can be done for prevention, and also to focus on what happens post-crash -- the rehabilitation services in the country.

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