Today is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the day on which our thoughts turn to those who have died, suffered injury or lost a child, mother, father, brother, sister or friend on the world’s roads, together with the medical and emergency services and all others affected or involved in the aftermath. Remembrance Day is also an important day on which to highlight the huge scale of road death and injury and the human and economic cost of shattered lives

1.3 million people die annually on the roads of the world, 50 million are injured, many permanently. Road crashes are the leading cause of death of children and young people today. The tragedy is that 90% of crashes are due to human negligence and therefore preventable. As horrifying as these numbers are, they are forecast to nearly double by 2020 unless governments adopt the best practices detailed in the World Traffic Report

Most of the increase will take place in developing countries like Oman which already has one of the worse crash death rates in the world proportionate to its very small population (28-35 per 100,000 dead compared to the global average of 19 per 100,000 and 5/6 per 100,000 in Western European countries: See WHO’s Global Status Report). In recent years, Oman’s annual toll has risen to nearly 1000 people a year, among them hundreds of children and young people. Staggering numbers in a population of only 2.5 million. And yet, this escalating trend equalled only by other GCC states and sub-Saharan Africa shows no sign of stabilising, let alone reversing despite the sustained efforts of the authorities and the personal appeal of His Majesty, Qaboos bin Said in 2009.

In Oman today there is scarcely a family unaffected by the trauma and pain of the sudden and violent death or lifelong injury of a loved one in a crash. Those left behind often have to cope not just with grief but anger at lack of legal redress or accountability for the loss of their loved one or guilt if they survived the crash in which their loved one was killed or injured. In the absence of any counselling, victim support or rehabilitation facility, the survivors are left to struggle alone with their silent burden of pain and suffering.

Remembrance Day is also a reminder that the governments of the world have the means today to turn back the rising tide of death and injury of the world’s roads by implementing the five-pillar plan of the UN Global Decade of Action launched in May this year. You can make a difference by auditing your own driving behaviour: viz, pledge today to:-

-slow down,
-buckle up,
-switch off mobiles,
-obey the road rules,
-avoid all distractions, and
-do not drive tired or impaired by drugs or alchohol

Demand the same standards from all who drive for or with your loved ones, always.

UN Development Adviser Kevin Watkins explain why the Decade of Action is desperately needed © 2010 Make Roads Safe Campaign

For more global road safety films from Make Road Safe, click here

Global Decade for Action on Road Safety

The United Nations has declared 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for road safety with the goal to stabilize and then reduce the level of global road traffic fatalities forecast to rise to 1.9 million by 2020. The Decade challenges the governments of the world to act to reduce the toll of road traffic death and injury now recognised as a major public health crisis and human catastrophe for the developing world in particular.

More than 1.3 million people die a sudden and violent death every year in road traffic crashes on the world’s roads and 50 million more are injured. Every 6 seconds someone dies or is seriously injured in a collision somewhere in the world. Daily, 3.500 people leave home never to return. This epidemic of death and injury is already the biggest killer of children and young people aged 10-24, more than 260,000 million dying and 11 million injured annually.

As grim as these figures are, without concerted action the toll of road crash death and injury is forecast to rise to 1.9 million by 2020, most of the increase occurring in the developing world.

The goal of the Decade of Action is to stabilize and then reduce the level of fatalities forecast to rise to 1.9 million by 2020. Potentially millions of lives can be saved by implementation of a global ‘safe systems’ plan that addresses road users, infrastructure and vehicles. Read more

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, ruler of Oman, used the occasion of his annual ‘Meet the People Tour’ in 2009 to express his deep concern at the rising tide of road crash death and injury on the country’s roads. Addressing sheikhs and notables at the Royal Camp in Saih Al Makarim on October 18, in measured and sombre tones, His Majesty described the spiralling toll as deeply worrying.

The social and economic cost of lives lost and life-long disability caused by road crashes is the greatest burden on the nation’s progress and prosperity today, he said. Reckless driver behaviour is the No.1 cause and prevalent among all strata of society, without exception, declared His Majesty, adding “While we believe that life and death are pre-ordained by Almighty Allah, at the same time, He ordered us not to destroy ourselves”.

HM concluded with an appeal to the nation to address road safety as an absolute priority and as a collective responsibility. He ordered government departments to intensify their public road safety education efforts.

Oman faces the irony of leading global efforts to combat road death and injury worldwide through the United Nations while suffering a record toll at home.