Road accidents leading killer of children and young people, WHO report finds
- More than 1.35 million people die in road accidents each year, the World Health Organisation has found
- The number of deaths annually has risen by around 100,000 in just three years
Road accidents kill someone every 24 seconds, with a total of 1.35 million traffic deaths around the world each year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found, demanding global action.
The number of fatalities annually has risen by around 100,000 in just three years, with road accidents now the leading killer of children and young people between the ages of five and 29, the UN health agency revealed in a new report.
“These deaths are an unacceptable price to pay for mobility,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “There is no excuse for inaction. This is a problem with proven solutions.”
The WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety, based on data from 2016, shows that the situation is worsening.
In its last report, based on data from 2013, the number of road traffic deaths was estimated at 1.25 million annually.
But despite the increase in the overall number of deaths, the rate of death compared to the growing number of people and cars in the world has stabilised in recent years.
