Trafikulykker dræber og kvæster titusinder af især unge afrikanere
ADDIS ABABA, 18 November 2011 (IRIN): Increasing traffic accident deaths are a likely consequence of economic and population growth in Africa unless leaders on the continent, already beset by the world’s worst road-safety record, implement a wide-ranging plan.
This plan should address the second leading cause of deaths of young people on the continent, specialists at a major conference told IRIN.
– Africa has the worst road safety record in the world, despite the fact that it has fewer cars than other regions, Robert Lisinge, an expert in transportation at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told IRIN on the Second African Road Safety Conference held in Addis Ababa this month.
Between 10 and 20 people per 1.000 in Africa own a vehicle. In Western Europe and Canada, the figure is 600; in the United States, more than 800.
Yet some 322.000 lives are lost in Africa every year in road traffic accidents, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO said the phenomenon was robbing the continent of its “breadwinners” and reducing national GDPs by between 1 and 5 percent, or 10 billion US dollar (over 50 milliarder DKR) a year.
– We are losing more human capital now and it is affecting our economies. African governments, as well as others who have a say in this, need to do more to curb this, Taye Birhanu, an economist with the Transportation and Development Forum, an NGO, told IRIN.
Worse to come?
Læs videre på http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94238
Se også, hvad etioperne vil gøre ved det, på
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94165
