Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
10
Section 1: FRAMEWORK FOR ROAD SAFETY
1 Introduction
The aim of the study is to improve road safety management capacity in OIC member countries
in order to reduce road accidents.
1.1 Background
Focus on road safety
Transportation is one of the six cooperation areas of COMCEC. In this specific area COMCEC is
striving to assist member states in overcoming transportation-related problems in order to
facilitate improved movement of goods and passengers between the member states. As part of
this endeavour, COMCEC has embraced the goals of United Nations’ (UN) Resolution for the
Decade of Action (DoA) for Road Safety 2011-2020 (United Nations, 2011). The DoA calls for
signatories to implement far-reaching road safety programmes aimed at ultimately halving
fatalities and serious injuries in traffic-related accidents by 2020. The UN General Assembly has
since adopted two specific road safety related goals as part of its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. These aim at halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2020 (Sustainable
Development Goal 3) and by 2030, providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and
sustainable transport systems for all (Sustainable Development Goal 11). The second road safety
related goal targets improved public transport and calls for special attention to the needs of
vulnerable people, women, children, the disabled and elderly persons.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 1.2 million people die on the
world’s roads annually (World Health Organisation, 2015). The majority of these deaths occur
on the roads of middle and low income countries and cost these countries approximately 3% of
GDP annually. Traffic accidents are preventable however they are still amongst the leading
causes of mortality in todays’ society.
The WHO report reveals that although the annual number of fatalities worldwide seems to have
stabilised that this is primarily attributable to significant improvements in road safety
management in high income countries. Trends inmiddle and low income countries do not reflect
this and given the differences in the levels of motorisation, traffic mortality rates are
disproportionately high in these countries. The WHO report reveals that high income countries
account for 18% of the world population, 46% of the registered motor vehicle population and
10% of all road traffic deaths. Low income countries account for 12% of the world population,
1% of registered vehicles and 16% of road deaths. Medium income countries make up the
balance (70% population; 53% vehicles and 74% traffic fatalities). Low income countries have
the highest traffic related mortality rate (24.1 deaths/100,000 inhabitants); almost three times
that of high income countries (9.2 deaths/ 100,000 inhabitants). As mentioned earlier, the
number of traffic related deaths in high income countries has been declining over the period
2010-2013, whereas in low and middle income countries it has been increasing.