Stockholm, 17 February 2020 – The tragic face and true extent of life-changing road crash injuries incurred every single day has been revealed for the first time today in an iRAP Vaccines for Roads V road safety resource released in Stockholm.

Every day, 56 people are left quadriplegic, 161 are rendered amputees, 914 are ‘degloved’, 932 suffer severe acquired brain injuries and 20,865 suffer limb fractures. In total 102,835 predominately young people suffer life changing injuries or death. USD$6 billion of new costs are added to health, insurance and welfare costs, every, single, day.

iRAP’s Big Data Tool, vaccinesforroads.org, shines a light on the true human impact of road trauma with estimates of the actual injury types and real victim impact stories. The resource unlocks the potential of the world’s largest road infrastructure safety database to explore how safe the world’s roads are and provide the Business Case for 3-star or better roads for all road users worldwide.

Speaking from the Launch, iRAP Chief Executive Officer Rob McInerney said we commonly talk about death rates – that over 3,600 people die on our world’s roads each day – but fatalities are just the tip of the iceberg.

“For the first time, the often hidden and equally tragic consequences of road crash injury are revealed.  If we can shine a light on the true personal impact of road crash injury, the type of those injuries and the financial burden placed on health systems around the world we will finally respond with the scale and urgency needed,” Mr McInerney said.

Applying the iRAP Global Standard to meet the UN Road Safety Performance Targets 3 and 4 for 3-star and better roads for all road users worldwide stands to save 450,000+ lives a year and 100 million deaths and serious injuries over the 20 year life of the treatments with $8 of savings for every $1 invested.

“With knowledge of the human and financial impact, the current condition of the world’s roads; the Business Case for Safer Roads and case studies of success, we have the moral imperative, the policy setting, funding mechanism and recipe for scale,” Mr McInerney added.

The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), a global charity operating in more than 100 countries, launched the Vaccines for Safer Roads (fifth edition) during the 2020 Innovation Workshop, an official side event of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference for Road Safety.

For more information, visit vaccinesforroads.org or download the brochure at https://resources.vaccinesforroads.org/Vaccines_for_Roads_V_Brochure.pdf

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Support materials

• Download official media release
• Vaccines for Roads website: https://www.vaccinesforroads.org
• Vaccines for Roads brochure: https://resources.vaccinesforroads.org/Vaccines_for_Roads_V_Brochure.pdf
• The Human Impact Every Day graphic: 

About the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP)

iRAP is a registered charity with the vision for a world free of high-risk roads. The charity is active in over 100 countries and works with governments, development banks, mobility clubs, research organisations and road safety NGOs to provide them with the free tools, systems and training to make their roads safer. iRAP’s Star Rating Methodology has been adopted as the global standard for safer roads and provides a simple and objective measure of the level of safety which is ‘built-in’ to the road for vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. A 1-star road is the least safe and a 5-star road is the safest. The charity, together with partners worldwide, has influenced the safety of over USD$75 billion dollars of infrastructure investment, has Star Rated over 1 million kms of roads and trained over 22,000 people globally. iRAP is the umbrella programme for regional road assessment programmes including EuroRAP, ChinaRAP, AusRAP, usRAP, KiwiRAP, IndiaRAP, BrazilRAP, South Africa RAP, ThaiRAP and MyRAP and is financially supported by the FIA Foundation, Global Road Safety Facility and FedEx.
https://irap.org/

 About Vaccines for Roads

Maximising travel on roads that are 3-star or better will save lives and reduce injuries.  Applying the global standard and ensuring all new roads are built to at least a 3-star standard for all road users and existing roads are upgraded to achieve >75% of travel on 3-star or better roads is the vaccine we need. iRAP has been producing Vaccines for Roads for many years commencing with a focus on safer roads pilots, moving onto projects, programmes, case studies of success and scale, and now a global focus on the human and financial impact of road injury. Vaccines for Roads V (2020) highlights the human impact of road trauma with injury types and rates related to economic costs. It includes real victim impact stories and unlocks the potential of the world’s largest road infrastructure safety database (based on 358,000kms of roads across 54 countries) to explore how safe the world’s roads are for different road user groups, the road attributes that matter, the human and economic benefit (the Business Case) for 3-star or better roads for all road users worldwide, case studies of success and how countries can take action to apply the Step by Step Approach to Safer Roads. iRAP’s Big Data Tool highlights that:

• 88% of travel is rated an unsafe 1-2 stars for pedestrians
• 67% of travel is only 1-2 stars for motorcyclists
• 86% of travel is only 1-2 stars for bicyclists
• 44% of travel is only 1-2 stars for vehicles

See vaccinesforroads.org to explore the likely human impact of injury in your country and how safe the world’s roads are by road type, road user group, traffic volumes, area type, road maintenance standards and by global region. It is available as an online resource and printed brochure.

https://www.vaccinesforroads.org/

About the 2020 Innovation Workshop

The 2020 Innovation Workshop is being held from 17-18 February 2020, co-hosted by iRAP, the International Transport Forum and World Bank. It is an official side event of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety focussed on the theme of “Achieving Global Goals 2030”. The Ministerial will be attended by 1,500 delegates including minister-led delegations from 80 United Nations Member States, senior officials from United Nations agencies and representatives from civil society, academia and the private sector. The Conference will provide delegates with the opportunity to share successes and lessons from the implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020; chart future strategic directions for global road safety up to 2030 and beyond; and define ways to accelerate action on proven strategies to save lives.

Media contact:            

Judy Williams
Global Programme Manager iRAP
Mob:     +61 400 782 204
Email:   judy.williams@irap.org