ROAD PROJECT

Identification

• Name of the health problem: injuries and deaths resulting from road traffic crashes
• Category or domain: road safety / unintentional injuries

Problem description

• Brief definition: Road traffic injuries are a major global public health challenge, characterised by high levels of mortality and morbidity and shaped by a complex interplay of human, structural and contextual factors.
• Magnitude and burden of disease: In 2021, road traffic crashes caused nearly 1.2 million deaths worldwide, the vast majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2023). According to 2019 estimates, they rank as the twelfth leading cause of death globally and among the foremost causes of death in young people.
• Most affected populations: Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among children and young adults aged 5 to 29 years. More than half of all victims are vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. In 2021, motorcyclists and other powered two- and three-wheeler riders accounted for 30% of fatalities; occupants of four-wheeled vehicles, 25%; pedestrians, 21%; and cyclists, 5%.

Inequity and social determinants

• Main inequities observed: Ninety-two per cent of all road traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, home to 84% of the world’s population. The risk of dying in a road traffic crash is three times higher in these countries, despite the fact that they possess only about 1% of the global motor vehicle fleet.
• Relevant social determinants: Socioeconomic conditions, urban and transport planning, road infrastructure quality and maintenance, traffic regulation and vehicle manufacturing standards, road safety education, equitable access to safe transport systems, and road network governance are all key factors shaping the incidence and severity of road traffic injuries.
• Associated structural factors: Transport policies have historically prioritised economic efficiency over safety, generating negative externalities—preventable deaths, pollution, exclusion and inequity—that reflect a lack of holistic vision in mobility planning.

Justification for its inclusion by the HALE Chair

• Relevance (severity, inequity, cross-sectoral relevance): Road safety represents a major health problem and a clear example of structural, social and geographical inequity. Its selection as the HALE Chair’s first field of work responds to its exemplary nature: injuries caused by road traffic crashes illustrate how acting upon a specific, structurally determined problem can generate broad benefits in terms of public health, equity and educational transformation.
  
  Its disproportionate impact underscores the need to integrate this issue into university education from a perspective of social justice and educational innovation. International organisations, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations, have called for strengthened technical and professional capacities in this field and for enhanced international cooperation, particularly in countries facing the most severe structural challenges.
• Non-health sectors involved: Road safety is an area in which numerous disciplines outside the health sciences converge—engineering, economics, law, social sciences and communication, among others. Despite its relevance, road safety remains largely absent from university curricula. Some economics programmes address transport economics, though few explore the externalities arising from policies focused solely on reducing travel time. Likewise, although mechanical engineering programmes often cover energy efficiency, they rarely incorporate impact biomechanics or analyse equitable distributional effects. Social science programmes often overlook the structural links between mobility, equity and wellbeing.
  
  Road safety therefore provides a unique opportunity for students in non-health disciplines to understand how their professional activities influence both individual and population health. For example, a mechanical engineer can influence the likelihood and severity of injuries resulting from a crash; a civil engineer can influence the frequency and severity of crashes; a journalist can shape the way road safety is communicated; a lawyer can defend or challenge legislation; and a judge can determine how such legislation is interpreted and applied. This interdisciplinary perspective demonstrates that improving road safety—and, by extension, public health—requires the active involvement of multiple professional fields beyond health care.
• Potential for intervention or improvement: Despite international efforts led by the United Nations through two Decades of Action for Road Safety, progress has been limited, partly due to an excessive focus on individual behaviour. Within this context, the HALE Chair’s ROAD Project seeks to contribute to reducing road traffic injuries and their consequences for public health by incorporating cross-cutting road safety content into undergraduate programmes, adopting a systemic and interdisciplinary approach.
  
  Road safety aligns with the priorities established by the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Organization for strengthening professional capacities during the forthcoming Sustainable Transport Decade 2026–2036, centred on equity, sustainability, efficiency, safety and gender equality.

Key references

(Studies, data or institutional sources supporting the selection of the problem) 

• World Health Organization. (2023)Global status report on road safety 2023 (License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO). Geneva: WHO.
• United Nations (2010). Improving Global Road Safety: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 64/255. New York: United Nations.
• United Nations. General Assembly Resolutions on Improving Global Road Safety (A/RES/58/9, A/RES/66/260, A/RES/70/260, A/RES/74/299, A/RES/76/294, A/RES/78/290. New York: United Nations.