Road safety, a key development priority

African Ministers attending the Road Safety Conference held in Accra (dates) issued a declaration committing "to set and achieve measurable national targets for road safety and traffic-injury prevention to contribute to the achievement of Africa's overall Millennium Development Goals".

According to the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention (link ) , published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank in 2004, road traffic crashes claim the lives of more than 1.2 million people every year and are responsible for about 40 million injuries. They disproportionately affect low and middle-income countries, with costs of between 65 billion and 100 billion US$. The World Bank estimates that, if fatality rates per vehicle in poorer countries were reduced by 30% by 2020, more than 2.5 million lives could be saved and 200 million injuries avoided.

See the Accra declaration