Action urged on road safety
12 October 2004
China needs to take urgent action to improve road safety and reduce the number of accidents, Chinese and international agencies warned. According to the World Health Organization, more than 600 people are killed and 45,000 are injured every day on China's road network. Without improvements it forecast that deaths would more than double to 1,370 a day by 2020. The warnings came alongside the publication of the first Chinese language edition of the "World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention", released jointly by the WHO, the World Bank and the ministries of health and public security. The report said that injuries from road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for Chinese aged 15 to 45 years old, with road accidents costing the Chinese economy directly or indirectly between US$12 and $21 billion a year.