Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
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12.3 Road Safety in OIC Member Countries
Road safety performance
A comparison has been made of road safety performance, measured in mortality rate (number
of road traffic deaths per population size), in OIC member countries and non-OIC member
countries. Mortality rates are then linked to economic development of the OIC member
countries, measured in income per capita, resulting in the classification of high income country
(HIC), middle income country (MIC) and low income country (LIC).
The OIC member countries show diversity in road safety performance, with mortality rates
ranging from 8.3 (Bahrein) to 32.1 (Iran). Regional differences exist, with mortality rate
averages of the OIC member countries in the African group of 24.5; the Arab group of 21.2 and
the Asian group of 16.1 Mortality rates in the OIC member countries are in general higher than
expected, based on comparison with other countries of similar income levels). As an indication,
the world average mortality rate 18.8 and the global average for MICs and LICS is 19.5 and 21.5
respectively.
As for road safety performance, the OIC member countries can be stratified into four groups:
1. HICs with much higher road mortality than average for HICs in general.
2. MICs with higher than average road mortality.
3. MICs with lower than average road mortality.
4. LICs with mortality that is high in an absolute sense.
Road safety management
This literature review revealed that member countries of the OIC generally are in the early
development stages of the Safe Systems Approach, as advocated by the Global Plan for the
Decade of Action. A number of countries in the Arab and Asian region have taken steps to
improve road safety management to the extent that they are now comparable to many other
international countries, which have adopted and practiced the Safe Systems Approach.
However, these countries have not as yet developed an integrated approach across all pillars
(including roads and mobility; vehicles; road users and post-crash care) sufficiently to be
considered as practising the fundamentals of a Safe Systems Approach.
Countries worth mentioning as seemingly to have advanced most in the direction of a Safe
Systems Approach are the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan and to a lesser extent Oman,
Turkey and Malaysia.
12.4 Road Safety Development Phases in OIC Member Countries
There is a general relationship between road safety performance and economic development,
as indicated in Chapter 6. presents the economic development levels for the OIC
member countries. As can be seen, the majority of OIC member countries is in the category MIC,
followed by the category LIC. It should be noted that regional differences exist, i.e. the majority
of the OIC member countries in the African region are LIC, whereas the Arab region has a
relatively high number of HICs.