Road safety is a global public health issue

Turkey and WHO/Europe take action on speeding and use of seat belts to reduce road traffic injuries in Turkey.

Press release, Ankara, 29 September 2011

Key national institutions and international partners will meet in Ankara on 29 September 2011 to discuss progress of Turkey Road Safety project.

Turkey is one of the countries included in the global Road Safety in Ten Countries Project (RS10), which started in January 2010 and funded by Bloomberg Initiative.

The objective of this project is to reduce death and disability through road traffic injury prevention projects in ten focus countries. This involves training, raising awareness, developing model programmes and implementing effective interventions.

Global Road Safety

For many years road traffic crashes have been acknowledged by the United Nations and its Member States as a challenge to the achievement of health and development goals across the world.

Key facts:

• Road traffic crashes take the lives of nearly 1.3 million people every year, and injure 20–50 million more.
• Road traffic injuries have become the leading cause of death for people aged 15–29 years.
• Over 90% of road traffic deaths and injuries occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.
• In addition to the grief and suffering they cause, road traffic crashes result in considerable economic losses to victims, their families, and nations as a whole, costing most countries 1–3% of their gross national product.
• Without action, road traffic crashes are predicted to result in the deaths of around 1.9 million people annually by 2020.

Road Safety in Europe

It is particularly young people who are killed and injured on the roads. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death in those aged 15-29 years old in the European Region. Road crashes cause the loss of more than 120 000 lives every year in the Region. In addition to these deaths, about 2.4 million people are estimated to be so seriously injured as to require hospital admission each year.

Only during the past decade has the issue gained the prominence it deserves as one of the world’s most pressing international health and development concerns. Following the highly successful First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety hosted by the Government of the Russian Federation in November 2009, a Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 was officially proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in March 2010.

Road Safety in Turkey

According to the European Status Report on Road Safety (2009), approximately 10 000 people lose their lives in Turkey each year as a result of road traffic crashes.  According to Turkish statistical data, 4300 of them die before reaching hospital, and this number doubles to about 10 000 if deaths within 30 days are included. In addition, nearly 200 000 people are injured. The majority of these severe injuries result in permanent disability or/and long-term health problems.

Turkey is one of the countries included in the Road Safety in Ten Countries Project (RS10), implemented since December 2010. The project aims to reduce death and disability through road traffic injury prevention projects initially in two sites in Turkey (Afyonkarahisar and Ankara) through building capacity, raising awareness, developing model programmes and implementing effective interventions.

Speeding and car seat belt use are two main risk factors where action is being undertaken to reduce the daily toll from road traffic injuries.

The project is being undertaken through a consortium approach. In Turkey, WHO together with the Global Road Safety Partnership, Johns Hopkins University and the Association for Safe International Road Travel focus on implementing good practices around public health risk factors.

RS10 in Turkey is coordinated by the WHO Country Office and the following components have been initiated and undertaken jointly with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior (General Directorate for Security and Gendarmerie) and Ministry of Transportation:

• Coordination
• Capacity building
• Special interventions (legislations review, risk analysis etc.)
• Social marketing and public education
• Monitoring and evaluation

The First phase of the RS10 in Turkey will finish at the end of 2011 and phase two will be implemented for three years between 2012 and 2014.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Serap Sener
Programme Coordinator
World Health Organization,
Country Office in Turkey
UN House Birlik Mahallesi 2
Cadde, No 11
Cankaya - Ankara,
Tel: +90 312 4541091,
Mobile: +90 533 2414485
Fax: +90 312 4961488
Email: seners@euro.who.int

Dr Dinesh Sethi,
Programme Manager of Violence and Injury Prevention
WHO Regional Office for Europe, Rome Office
Tel: + 39 06 487 75 26
Mobile +393454752297
Email: DIN@ecr.euro.who.int

Dr Maria Cristina Profili
WHO Representative in Turkey
World Health Organization,
Country Office in Turkey
UN House Birlik Mahallesi 2 Cadde, No 11
Cankaya - Ankara, Turkey
Office: +90 312 4541084
Fax: +90 312 4961488
E-mail: MCP@euro.who.int