Road accident deaths too high in Africa – Songwe
Too many people are dying from road traffic accidents in Africa, making the continent the place with the highest number of deaths from road accidents as compared to other continents.
Speaking at the Fifth United Nations Global Road Safety Week taking place from May 6 to 12, 2019, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ms Vera Songwe, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), has decried the risk of death from road traffic accidents on the continent.
Citing the statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), she said, “The figures, which stand as high as 26.6 per 100,000 compared to 17.0 in South-East Asia and 9.3 in Europe, according to the 2018 WHO Report on Road Safety, and analysis by the ECA should cause us to make major changes in policy and legislation.”
She noted further that, Road Safety Performance Reviews, jointly undertaken by the ECA and the Secretariat of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, show the extent of the road safety challenge in countries like Uganda and Cameroon.
According to Ms. Songwe, the accident severity index in Uganda shows that 24 people are killed per 100 road crashes.
“On average, Uganda loses 10 people per day in road traffic crashes, the highest level in East Africa. The impact is equally tragic. The overall annual cost of road crashes is currently estimated at approximately $1.2 billion, representing five per cent of Uganda’s GDP.
In Cameroon, 16,583 road accidents and 1,500 deaths are recorded on average every year. The risk of road deaths is estimated at 26.7 per 100,000 people,” she said.
She noted that the situation in Uganda and Cameroon is reflective of that of the entire continent, as the ECA’s research shows that African countries perform poorly in road safety management.
“Many of our countries have inadequate institutional arrangements, finance, and data to deal with the carnage on our roads and addressing these issues in their entirety requires strong leadership, which is why the theme of the 2019 UN Road Safety Week; Leadership for Road Safety, is apt,” she said.
There is a campaign to address road accidents globally. It has an ambitious goal, aimed to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.
The campaign is in pursuant of the SDG Goal 3.6, which calls on governments to take new steps to reduce road traffic fatalities.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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