Unsafe road traffic conditions in the countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA)have tremendous adverse implications for their economic and social well-being, says a World Bank report. Treating road safety victims is imposing an increasingly unbearable burden on these countries’ health and social services. Road traffic injuries are a major cause of death and disability, affecting young and working-age groups of society in particular, and ECA countries need to act now to prevent injuries and save lives, suggest World Bank experts.

The report Confronting "Death on Wheels": Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia, released after the first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, reviews the size, characteristics, and causes of the road safety problem in ECA countries. The report will help bring into action the agreements reached during the conference held in Moscow on November 19-20, 2009 under the main theme Time for Action. The report finds that the magnitude of the road safety problem in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans is much higher than in Western Europe, even though their car fleet is smaller and the number of kilometers they travel by car is lower. The report provides compelling evidence on the economic and social consequences of the silent epidemic and suggests a range of policies and strategies and to confront and prevent "death on wheels".

"Road traffic injuries are already among the top 10 causes of death and disability in ECA and the trend is worsening," – said Abdo Yazbeck, World Bank Health Sector Manager for the Europe and Central Asia. "Human impact of traffic crashes is enormous. Families are being driven into poverty because of the death of their breadwinner or the mounting costs of medical care and rehabilitation for accident victims. But the growing magnitude of the problem is also bringing a national dimension to it, contributing to the demographic crisis and imposing additional burdens on country economies which lose billions of dollars every year as a result of traffic injuries and fatalities".

In ECA, the highest estimated annual costs to governments are in the large economies that also have sizeable populations: Russia (US$ 34 billion per year), Turkey (US$ 14 billion), Poland (US$ 10 billion), and Ukraine (US$ 5 billion). A combination of weak road safety management capacity, deteriorated roads, unsafe vehicles, poor driver behavior, and patchy enforcement of road safety laws, alongside exponential growth in the number of vehicles, are the key factors contributing to road traffic injuries and fatalities multiplying at a rapid pace.

"Road safety is routinely a key component of World Bank transport projects but more can be done," – said Henry Kerali, World Bank Transport Sector Manager for the Europe and Central Asia. "The Bank stands ready to support countries’ programs to improve road safety - including road safety reviews, strengthening capacity of national road safety authorities, improving safety features of road infrastructure, tightening enforcement, implementing public campaigns for safer driving, and strengthening emergency medical services".

According to the report, an effective country road safety strategy requires a systematic multisectoral approach with a politically strong and technically competent lead agency to coordinate contributions by the many government departments across which road safety responsibilities tend to be diffused: transport, interior, police, health, and education, among others. The goal should be to prevent the occurrence of injury, minimize the severity of injury when traffic injuries occur, and prevent lasting disability in the aftermath.

The report concludes that growing urbanization, accelerating growth in the number of vehicles, and patchy efforts to legislate and enforce road safety measures result in continued growth of road injuries and fatalities, and the time has arrived to support concerted efforts to make roads in ECA countries safer. Together with seven other development banks, on November 11, 2009, the World Bank issued a joint statement ahead of the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, outlining a broad package of measures that each institution would implement to reduce an alarming rise in the number of road injuries fatalities and disability in low and middle income countries.