WHO recognized highway security as a world public well being precedence greater than 20 years in the past | Picture used for representational functions solely | Picture credit score: File picture
The variety of visitors fatalities is reducing in the USA and around the globe, however low-income international locations have seen much less enchancment, based on a examine launched Monday.
In keeping with a examine revealed in , the charges of worldwide highway visitors accidents and deaths every decreased by greater than 30% between 1990 and 2023. lancet public well beingfamous that progress varies by nation.
Throughout this era, the variety of pedestrian and automobile occupant fatalities elevated in six international locations, together with the USA. Nonetheless, more moderen knowledge reveals that the variety of visitors fatalities in the USA decreased in 2024 and 2025.
The World Well being Group launched its personal figures on Monday, discovering that deaths from highway accidents fell by 21% between 2011 and 2025. Nonetheless, highway accidents nonetheless claimed greater than 1.1 million lives final yr and stay the main reason behind demise for youngsters and younger individuals aged 5 to 29, the WHO mentioned.
Site visitors deaths embody deadly accidents to pedestrians, bicyclists, and occupants of automobiles, vans, and different automobiles. The researchers behind the brand new report primarily based their estimates on obtainable knowledge, as full knowledge is missing in some international locations.
Researchers on the College of Washington’s Institute for Well being Metrics and Analysis discovered that whereas visitors damage charges are larger in high-income international locations, 90% of visitors fatalities happen in low-income international locations.
In lots of low-income international locations, security measures haven’t saved up with the fast development of cities and using electrical automobiles. For instance, obligatory seat belts are extra frequent in high-income international locations, as are automotive security options corresponding to airbags.
“Street damage outcomes rely not solely on the crash itself, but additionally on the programs designed to forestall crashes and shield individuals after they happen,” lead creator of the brand new paper Lian Ong mentioned in an announcement.
Nonetheless, the authors write that contradictory developments are rising in the USA, such because the proliferation of tall, giant passenger automobiles. U.S. officers additionally mentioned that hundreds of deaths every year could possibly be brought on by “distracted driving,” corresponding to drivers their cell telephones.
The variety of motorcar fatalities in the USA has elevated over the previous decade, peaking at greater than 43,000 in 2021, earlier than beginning to decline, based on the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration. The company estimates that quantity fell to about 36,600 final yr.
In the meantime, the Governors Freeway Security Affiliation lately reported that in 2025, the variety of individuals hit and killed by U.S. drivers on U.S. roads can be 7% decrease than the earlier yr. This was the most important annual decline since pedestrian fatalities started declining three years in the past, however was nonetheless larger than pre-pandemic numbers.
The WHO recognized highway security as a world public well being precedence greater than 20 years in the past. lancet The discharge of the report coincides with the beginning of a two-day United Nations high-level convention on bettering world highway security in New York Metropolis.
