Reducing traffic injury: size of the problem and lack of research resources

Worldwide, traffic deaths are 500,000 per year and growing. Four nations, China, India, Russia, and the United States of America, have reached levels of 45,000-50,000 traffic deaths per year, although the nature of the problem is quite different in fully motorized countries from what it is in motorizing countries. In motorizing countries the death rates per 10,000 motor vehicles are much higher than in motorized countries, and also the traffic stream is much more varied. Research for the reduction of traffic injuries is funded at a proportionately much lower level than that for heart disease, cancer, or AIDS. Part of the reason for this is the failure of governments to view and to treat the problem of traffic injuries as a public health problem, but rather to view it solely as a transport problem or as a police matter. A case is made for global mechanisms for the transfer of traffic injury reducing technology from fully motorized nations to motorizing nations.