The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued their Road Injuries Factsheet with the aim of promoting their ambition of saving millions of lives by coordinating a Decade for Action for Road Safety.

The WHO report highlights that some 1.35 million road traffic injuries occur each year.  The majority of these injuries occur to vulnerable road users. These are defined as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists and children and young adults

WHO highlight that the best approach to reduce these injuries is to develop and adopt a ‘safe system’.  Employers are in a unique position of being able to influence their staff and make positive change as these injuries cause distress and destroy lives.

No matter the region, the results bear out what we’ve known in the UK for a long time. The most likely victims of road traffic incidents are young, male and of a lower socioeconomic class. Almost 73% of deaths occur among young males, over 3 times that of females.

The route identified by WHO is to reduce human error and this can be achieved through education, such as identifying the effect of speed, vehicle maintenance and distracted driving on the ability to see and avoid collisions.

In the UK, the figures are relatively similar (see report Road Accident Casualties in Britain and the World), and so is the approach to reduce risk. For example in London, TFL has focused heavily on ‘Vulnerable Road Users’.

The UK report highlights the following accident casualty statistics:

• In 181,384 accident casualties recorded on Britain’s roads in 2016
• 1792 casualties were fatal
• Long-term trend shows road accidents declining

• Vulnerable Road Users make up 56% of fatal road accident victims
  • 25% pedestrians
  • 25% motorcyclists
  • 6% cyclists

Regular training and focus on common minor collision patterns can reduce collisions, claims and costs – and when we keep a focus on the more minor events, by default the increased level of driver awareness means that the more serious collisions are also less likely to occur.

This is a truly global issue and affects all of the regions in the world.  Cardinus Risk Management are dedicated to supporting the safe system approach of driver safety and have developed tools to allow business to reduce the risk of injury from driving.

Click here to see the products and services we provide to ensure your drivers are safe.