Road safety: Time for a Decade of Action

copyright World Health Organisation

With an estimated 3,500 road traffic related deaths every day, road casualties and fatalities are an urgent global concern. For those between 5 and 44 years, road traffic injuries are among the top three leading causes of death, and more alarmingly, for 15-29 year olds, road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death.

In March 2010, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration announced the 2011–2020 Decade of Action for road safety, with the overall aim of stopping and hopefully reversing the predicted trend of global road deaths, and the specific goal to prevent five million road traffic deaths globally by 2020.

By increasing activities at national, regional and global levels, the Decade encourages further education and enforcement of mandates, for example regarding seat belt usage, motorcycle helmet laws and child restraint seats, that would reduce the burden of casualties caused by road traffic disasters. Other aspects of the Decade focus on post-crash care, and ensuring effective pre-hospital emergency care systems are in place.

In support of the objectives of this global mission, the Journal of Trauma Management & Outcomes has launched an article collection on “Decade of Action for Road Safety”.
JTMO is accepting submissions from the trauma care, injury prevention and road safety community, as this recently published Editorial describes. The series aims to be a resource highlighting the substantial progress in epidemiologic and health-economic knowledge, methods of prevention, and effective care of road traffic injuries on a geopolitical level.

Furthermore, the journal has additional funding to support authors submitting to this series. For more information on this or any other aspect of the series, do contact the JTMO Editorial Office.

Keep up-to-date on the latest research and insights from this series, by signing up for article alerts.

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