SE Asia's killer roads to claim 385,000 lives in 5 years: Study
SE Asia's killer roads to claim 385,000 lives in 5 years: Study
Agence France-Presse, Manila
An estimated 385,000 people will die and 24 million be injured
on Southeast Asian roads over the next five years unless
authorities take road safety seriously, an Asian Development Bank
(ADB) report said on Monday.
The ADB-sponsored report said the economic cost alone from
traffic accidents over the same period could exceed US$88
billion, adding that authorities "grossly underestimate" the
scale of the problem.
The findings form part of a joint ADB and Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional program which aims to
establish a coordinated approach to road safety.
The program is due to be discussed on Tuesday at an ASEAN
transport ministers meeting in Phnom Penh. ASEAN groups Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
According to ADB estimates some 75,000 people were killed and
more than 4.7 million injured or disabled for life in road
accidents in Southeast Asian countries last year.
Annual economic losses from road accidents are estimated to be
around $15 billion, or 2.2 percent of the region's total gross
domestic product.
"Such huge recurring losses are not sustainable and action has
to be taken to implement a regional strategy and action plan to
improve road safety in the region," according to ADB transport
sector specialist Charles Melhuish.
He said road accidents are a growing problem worldwide,
resulting in around one million deaths and more than 23 million
injuries annually.
Around 85 percent of these deaths occur in developing
countries.
The Asia and Pacific region contributes 44 percent of global
road deaths, although it has only around 14 percent of the
world's motorized vehicle fleet.
"If each of those injured or killed has, say, five family
members or dependents reliant upon his or her earnings, there
could be 25 million persons in the region being directly affected
or suffering economic hardship as a result of road crashes,"
Melhuish said.
The economic development of the ASEAN countries, in
particular, has spurred rapid growth car use which has resulted
in a significant worsening of the road safety situation across
the region.
Motorcycles, involved in a high proportion of Asia's road
accidents, now constitute a large proportion of the vehicle fleet
in several countries, ranging from just three percent in Brunei
to 80 percent in Laos and 94 percent in Vietnam.
The proportion may be higher in some of the countries due to
the non-registration of vehicles.
Official figures of police reported road deaths and injuries
are declining in several countries, such as Indonesia and
Philippines.
"But official statistics grossly underestimate the actual
numbers of persons killed or injured in road accidents,"
according to Melhuish.
"Erratic reporting of official road casualties is the most
likely reason for declining deaths and injuries rather than
genuine year on year reduction in the road death toll," he said.
The ADB-backed research, based on statistics such as hospital
admissions, sample surveys and international experience, has
found that while police-reported road deaths are usually fairly
accurate, the number of road related injuries is often
significantly underestimated.
Total police reported road deaths in ASEAN in 2003 were 43,259
and 187,343 injured, compared to ADB estimates of 75,193 and
4,745,578, respectively.
The biggest discrepancies occurred in Indonesia and Philippines.
Police reported road deaths and injuries in 2003 in Indonesia
were 8,761 and 13,941, respectively, compared to ADB estimates of
30,464 and 2.55 million.
In the Philippines, police reports suggest 995 deaths and
6,790 injuries for that year, compared to ADB estimates of about
9,000 and 493,970, respectively.
The percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) lost annually
through road accidents ranges from 0.5 percent in Singapore to
3.21 percent in Cambodia, averaging out at 2.23 percent for the
region.
Indonesia loses the most in money terms, amounting to $6.03
billion a year or 2.91 percent of annual GDP, followed by
Thailand at $3 billion or 2.1 percent of GDP.
The regional plan suggests that the adoption of individual
country action plans could lead to a reduction of 42,000 in
deaths and 2.9 million injuries in ASEAN over the next five years
and $10.6 billion less in terms of economic losses.