Towards prevention of road traffic injuries, an urgent global issue despite significant road safety progress

Road traffic injuries lead to enormous economic loss to individuals, families and to the nation as whole. It costs countries?3% loss to the GDP. Around 1.19 people die each year due to Road Traffic Accidents globally and is a leading cause of death among children and young adults (5-29years of Age). Low and Middle income countries have only 60% of the world’s vehicles but 92% of world’s fatalities occur in these countries. Human error, speeding, distracted driving, no use of helmets, seat belts and child restraints, driving under the influence of alcohol and psychoactive substances, unsafe road infrastructure, unsafe vehicles, inadequate law enforcement all together are the risk factors of the Road traffic accidents.

Delay in post crash care has been one of the main reasons for fatalities and increases the risk of severity. Care post crash is extremely time sensitive and even a slightest delay may take the life of the individual.

India has been experiencing a high burden of RTIs with high fatality rates. But the main problem in developing strategies for preventing RTAs and injuries is the lack of actual and quality related data. FHTS was funded by ICMR to develop an electronic-based comprehensive and?integrated RTI surveillance system. The study provided a model of surveillance including both passive and active surveillance to cover the maximum number of RTIs. The study provides the first comprehensive epidemiology of RTIs.

Road traffic injuries are the eighth leading cause of death globally.

During 2021 in India, over speeding led to:

• 71.% of road accidents
• 69.6 % of total deaths
• 72.95 of total?injuries

Driving on wrong side is the second most important cause accounting for 5.2% of road accidents. Source: https://loksabhadocs.nic.in/Refinput/New_Reference_Notes/English/24042023_162909_102120526.pdf

Some Facts and Figures

• 1.19 million people die each year due to Road traffic crashes leaving 20 to 50 million people with non-fatal injuries globally
• 93% of deaths occur in low and middle income countries
• 1.5 lakh people deaths occur on India roads
• 47 accidents and 18 deaths every hour due to road traffic crashes
• One out of 10 people dying across the world on road is from India

Source: WHO

FHTS has contributed to a National Task Force Project

FHTS Contribution: Development and Implementation of Integrated Road Traffic Injuries Surveillance – India (IRIS-India)