Why is the difference so large in road death rates among countries

Abstract

There is big difference in road death rates among countries from as high as 81.56 in Congo to as low as 0.34 in Norway in terms of per 10 thousand vehicles registered. To find the reason behind this, we compared both graphically and statistically 15 interventions adopted by UN member countries. Comparison of the means of each intervention through Brown-Forsythe Variance Analysis was done. The study found and confirmed that stricter law and its enforcement in the following aspects associate lower road death rate: BAC restriction, speed limits on urban roads, rural roads and motorways, helmet law, seat-belt law, child restraint law, vehicle standard, audits or star rating of new road infrastructure projects, inspections/star ratings of existing road infrastructure projects, design standards for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, investments to upgrade high risk locations, policies & investment in urban public transport, policies promoting walking and cycling, emergency medicine and trauma surgery. If all countries have road death rate as low as Norway's 0.34, the total global road fatality will be 67,205—or 5 % of the current fatality. Thus it is advisable that interventions adopted by countries with low death rates should be popularized to other countries with high road death rates so as to cut down global total number of road deaths.

Keywords

• Traffic accident
• Death rate
• Injury
• Intervention
• Effective