Report forecasts an enormous loss of life and an unsustainable economic drain
Traffic accidents are costing Southeast Asian countries billions of dollars and will become an unsustainable economic drain unless reduced in number, a report released yesterday claimed.
Released to coincide with a meeting of Association of South East Asian Nations' transport ministers in Phnom Penh today, the Asian Development Bank's study forecast that 2.2 per cent of the region's gross domestic product - more than US$88 billion - would be lost over the next five years. The cost in lives in Asean's 10 member nations would be enormous - 385,000 deaths and 24 million injuries, it estimated.
ADB lead transport sector specialist Charles Melhuish, in Phnom Penh to present the findings, warned inaction would hamper the growth of Asean, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
'Such huge recurring losses are not sustainable and action has to be taken to implement a regional strategy and action plan to improve road safety,' Mr Melhuish said.
The ADB, based in Manila, is helping Asean draft a five-year road safety strategy to reduce the figures. It believes there were 75,193 deaths and 4.75 million injuries on the roads of the 10 countries last year.
