Nneka Henry, head of the UN Road Safety Fund (UNRSF), is calling on Asean member countries including Thailand to work closely with her organisation to promote road safety in the region.
Speaking to the Bangkok Post, Ms Henry, who recently participated in a workshop on Enhanced Regional EU-Asean Dialogue or E-READI in Bangkok organised by the European Union and Asean Secretariat, expressed her concerns over road safety among Asean member countries.
Looking at road safety, it was important to look at the issue country by country.
"But generally speaking, we see motorcycles are involved in up to 80-85% of traffic accidents. We see many people do not wear helmets, for example.
"Speeding is also an issue whether it is a motorcycle or car. But there are other issues as well such as law enforcement. Corruption around the law enforcement is also a challenge,'' she said.
A global perspective
At the global level, she said road accidents are the number one cause of death for children and teens aged between 5–29 across the world.
On average, 1.35 million people a year are killed from road accidents and over 50 million people suffer life-changing injuries. The 50 million people globally who are hospitalised create a big strain on health system, and road accidents cost most countries around 3% of GDP.
"Some 93% of them occur in low-middle income and developing countries even if these countries have some 60% of the vehicles in the world. It is a really sad story because it means the countries which are already overwhelmed with development priorities have to tackle this strain on the healthcare system because of injuries suffered in accidents," she said.
Thailand's case
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Thailand had the second highest rate of traffic-incident related fatalities globally in 2021, and the highest rate in Southeast Asian region.
In 2020, according to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), two people died every hour. About 70% of road accidents involved people in the age range of 16-60 years old.
Roughly 70%-85% of traffic accidents in Thailand involved a motorcycle. Since motorcycles are much cheaper than cars, many young adults drive, often without receiving proper training and obtaining a licence.
Additionally, WHO said just over half of the motorcycle drivers wore helmets and only 20% of their passengers used helmets while on the road.
Thailand spends more than 500 million baht on road traffic deaths and injuries a year, which costs around 6% of GDP, Ms Henry said. "In past decades, factors that contributed to the exponential increase in road accidents were a lack of helmet and seatbelt use, drunk driving, unlicensed drivers, and corrupt law enforcement,'' she said.
Ms Henry said Asean members who took part in the workshop told her about their progress in cutting the road accident rate.
In Thailand, the Road Safety Center (TRSC) under the Interior Ministry looks after road safety. At the international level, Thailand has signed three of seven global road safety conventions. They are the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic and 1968 Convention on Signs and Signals, and the 1958 Agreement concerning the Adoption of Harmonised Technical UN Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts.
"Many governments are doing a lot but some critical gaps still exist on legislation and enforcement issues. The fund exists to provide support to fill those gaps to help them on their journey to road safety.
"So, if we look at the Asean for example, many Asean member states have already implemented what they call 'the Safe System Approach' in their national road safety plan. It means they are looking holistically at the issue of road safety and that is an important step,'' she said.
UNRSF's help
Ms Henry said UNRSF was established to help member states curb the road accidents. The fund was started in 2018; this year the UN Road Safety Fund is working on 36 projects in 46 member states.
She also said UNRSF is the main way for companies, governments, individuals and civil society to channel financing and technical resources to road safety issues. As the funding secretariat, she tries to coordinate all resources to make sure the UNRSF provides targeted support to governments.
Her organisation supports five areas: Road Safety Management Systems, Safe Roads, Safe Users, Safe Vehicles and Effective Post-Crash Responses, she said. "We are making progress even if we have a limited amount of funding. We do need more resources and financing. It is also important that we have looked at fundraising for the road safety."
Ms Henry said that road safety has the added benefit of cleaner air, economic growth and productivity. It also saves on health costs through lower hospitalisation rates. "Road safety is normal in daily life but concerns things that many people overlook. We know the 'vaccine' for road safety and that is something that we like to say, because it is about improving vehicle standards, and changing behaviour through effective enforcement, for example such as helmet, seatbelts.
"It is about road design that is safe. It is also about effective post-crash responses. So, we know these things work but still we have this problem and some of these things are not expensive to do. So we need collective action and need to invest more,'' she said.
