Every day 3,000 people die in road traffic accidents around the globe - the equivalent of more than nine fully loaded Airbus A340 aircraft. Fifty million people are injured on the roads each year. Along with the pollution caused by exhaust emissions and the consumption of natural resources, road traffic accidents are one of the most serious consequences of individual motorisation. Developing and emerging countries are disproportionately badly affected: 85 % of road deaths and 90 % of injuries take place in these countries, although they still have comparatively low rates of motorisation.
The upward global trend in individual motorisation continues unabated, and indeed seems set to intensify in the foreseeable future. The number of vehicles on the road worldwide is today put at about 780 million, and the total is expected to break the one billion barrier by 2020.
 
The economic damage caused by road traffic accidents is put at 1 % of the gross domestic product (GDP) of low-income countries, 1.5 % of the GDP of medium-income countries and 2 % of the GDP of high-income countries. Significant costs are entailed, for instance, in hospitals and other medical facilities, since a considerable number of beds are occupied by accident victims (who spend an average of 20 days in hospital according to WHO statistics). This capacity is then no longer available to tackle other diseases or epidemics.
Germany can build on a wealth of experience in the field of road safety. In spite of a significant rise in mobility, the number of lives lost each year on German roads is today much lower than it was in the nineteen seventies. All groups within society have worked together to achieve this improvement, adapting road traffic legislation and the way it is enforced, consistently improving standards in highway construction and vehicle manufacture, as well as engaging in PR work that targets an extremely wide audience. This procedure is in line with the internationally recognised 4E approach (engineering, education, enforcement, emergency response).
On the basis of experience in Germany, GTZ supports cross-border cooperation among various stakeholders in road safety projects and initiatives. The advisory services it delivers aim to implement road safety measures in partner countries, to place experts and to help shape national strategy development processes.

Downloads

• The Road Safety Cent. Management and Financing of Road Safety in Low- Income countries.
  GTZ Eschborn, 2006
  en-Road-Safety-Cent-2006.pdf, 1,85 MB (english)
• Traffic Safety - The German Experience after the Reunification
  en-traffic-safety-reunification-2006.pdf, 0,29 MB (english)
• Urban Road Safety. A sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities. Module 5b
  GTZ Eschborn, 2004
  en-urban-road-safety-2004.pdf, 1,65 MB (english)

Links

• SUTP - Sustainable Urban Transport Project
   SUTP is a partnership between the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), CITYNET and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) which aims to help Asian cities achieve their sustainable transport goals, through the dissemination of information about international experience and work with particular cities.
  www.sutp.org