Explanation:
Road safety in low-income countries (LICs) remains a major concern. Given the expected increase in traffic exposure due to the relatively rapid motorisation of transport in LICs, it is imperative to better understand the underlying mechanisms of road safety. This in turn will allow for planning cost-effective road safety improvement programs in a timely manner. With the general aim of improving road safety in LICs, this paper discusses the state of knowledge and proposes a number of future research directions developed from literature reviews and expert elicitation. Our study takes a holistic approach based on the Safe Systems framework and the framework for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. We focused mostly on examining the problem from traffic engineering and safety policy standpoints, but also touched upon other sectors, including public health and social sciences. We identified ten focus areas relating to (i) under-reporting; (ii) global best practices; (iii) vulnerable groups; (iv) disabilities; (v) road crash costing; (vi) vehicle safety; (vii) proactive approaches; (viii) data challenges; (ix) social/behavioural aspects; and (x) capacity building. Based on our findings, future research ought to focus on improvement of data systems, understanding the impact of and addressing non-fatal injuries, improving estimates on the economic burden, implementation research to scale up programs and transfer learnings, as well as capacity development. Our recommendations, which relate to both empirical and methodological frontiers, would lead to noteworthy improvements in the way road safety data collection and research is conducted in the context of LICs.
Keywords: road safety; low-income countries; under-reporting; best practices; vulnerable groups; injury severity; road crash costing; crash data; capacity building
1. Introduction
Road safety is a major global health issue since large proportions of unintentional injuries are caused by traffic-related crashes. According to the Global Health Observatory, 1.35 million fatalities occur on the world’s roads each year [1]. In general, although traffic-related injuries and fatalities have seen a decreasing trend during the past two decades, this reduction has not been as significant as expected [2]. This is despite several improvements in motor vehicle safety standards and features, road safety policies, and road design [2]. In fact, road transport still poses a substantial risk to human health in many regions around the world.
The problem is especially critical in low-income countries (LICs), due to several persisting shortcomings in road safety standards, vehicle safety and maintenance, and in the design and implementation of policies and safe transportation infrastructure. Figure 1 displays national wealth versus road death rate based on data provided by the WHO [1]. Research is thus needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of road safety in LICs. This will help guide road safety policies and strategies, with the aim of reducing traffic-related injuries and fatalities. Note that we refer to LMICs to indicate low- and lower-middle income countries, while LICs refer specifically to low-income countries, as shown in Figure 1.
Sustainability 11 06249 g001 550Figure 1. Comparing road traffic death rates with national wealth [1].
There are global initiatives that have sought to address such issues, many of which are coordinated through the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 [3], developed by the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC). Examples include the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) [4], the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Facility [5], the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety [6], and the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project [7]. These global efforts have generally focused on the practical implementation of policies and standards to improve road safety in the developing world [8].
Given these developments in the field, and the fact that we are nearing the end of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety [3], it is important to take stock of where we are, what the state of the field is, and determine what research will be important in the future to make further progress. In line with this approach, our study aims to take a holistic approach investigating different lines of research under the broad topic of road safety in LICs with the aim of (i) analysing and summarising the current state of knowledge; and (ii) proposing a number of future research directions. We have used the Safe Systems framework and the framework for the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety to identify the domains of focus for this work [9,10]. There is a focus on the understanding of road safety engineering issues while also reaching out to other sectors.