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Background Information
Current health statistics published by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on all transport accidents in the Americas rank the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela as the five top nations in the number of traffic-related deaths. It is as following for these countries per 100,000 population (latest figures available):
- United States - 45,833 (during the 1997-1999 period)
- Brazil - 34,098 (during the 1996-1999 period)
- Mexico - 14,737 (during the 1998-2000 period)
- Colombia - 7,523 (during the 1996-1998 period)
- Venezuela - 4,935 (during the 1998-2000 period)
Traffic safety problems in Latin America and around the world prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to choose "Road Safety" as the theme for World Health Day 2004. WHO's World Health Day is celebrated annually on April 7.
Almost one half of all traffic accidents in Latin America take place in the region's cities and between one-half and one-third of those killed are pedestrians, according to a brief 2000 report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) entitled "The Preventable Plague."
In fact, the regional development bank said in its study that "the most singular phenomenon on Latin America's streets in the number of pedestrians who are hit and killed by vehicles." A key reason seems to be what the IDB study calls "a chronic lack of effective enforcement (that) keeps drivers from obeying speed limits and other rules of the road."
According to a report prepared in November 2000 for the World Bank by Brazil's National Association of Public Transportation (Associaçao Nacional de Transportes Públicos), these are the traffic accidents for selected countries in Latin America (in alphabetical order):
- Argentina: 6,473 fatalities and 130,000 injuries
- Brazil: 30,430 fatalities and 268,985 injuries
- Chile: 1,925 fatalities and 50,497 injuries
- Colombia: 7,445 fatalities and 50,630
- Mexico: 5,115 fatalities and 36,268 injuries
Some of the remedies that have been suggested include pedestrian-oriented transportation plans, betters traffic laws and regulations, more effective enforcement by the police and stricter requirement for driving licenses.
For more information, video material, or photographs please contact: Juan Walte, Office of Public Information, (202) 974-3172, e-mail: waltejua@paho.org.
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