Abu Dhabi, Nov 10 (IANS) Deaths in traffic accidents daily worldwide are comparable with those in any major natural disaster, an international safety expert has said and called on governments to make road safety a priority, WAM news agency reported Monday.
'Worldwide, each year 50 million people are injured and over 1.2 million killed in traffic accidents. This means an average of 3,242 casualties each day, which is comparable to the number of deaths in a major natural disaster,' said Joop Goos, president of Prevention Routiere Internationale, an international road safety watchdog with consultative status at the UN.
'A disaster like this happens every day without the world really noticing. Most people do not have a clue about the scale of the problem and it is often underestimated,' he said.
Goos was addressing an international symposium on 'Traffic Safety Management Systems' organised here by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) traffic department.
He said that the World Health Organisation has forecast that the number of road traffic fatalities worldwide will rise by 67 percent over the period from 2000 to 2020.
'These forecasts are bad. It is clear that we need to take action and make road safety a number one priority,' he said.
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