Nearly half of the 1.2 million people killed in traffic accidents around the world each year are not in cars. They are on motorcycles and bicycles or walking along roadsides. That finding, released in a report yesterday, may help explain why 90 percent of the world's traffic fatalities occur in a group of countries that together have fewer than half of the world's cars. The country-by-country survey of traffic injuries and deaths was published by the World Health Organization. Its 287-page report focuses on an overlooked problem in public health, and it gives a sense of where 178 countries stand in their use of such safety measures as speed limits, helmet laws and blood alcohol restrictions. Traffic accidents were the 10th-leading cause of death in the world in 2004, behind lung cancer and ahead of diabetes, and they are on track to become the fifth-leading cause by 2030.
That finding, released in a report yesterday, may help explain why 90 percent of the world's traffic fatalities occur in a group of countries that together have fewer than half of the world's cars.
The country-by-country survey of traffic injuries and deaths was published by the World Health Organization. Its 287-page report focuses on an overlooked problem in public health, and it gives a sense of where 178 countries stand in their use of such safety measures as speed limits, helmet laws and blood alcohol restrictions.
Traffic accidents were the 10th-leading cause of death in the world in 2004, behind lung cancer and ahead of diabetes, and they are on track to become the fifth-leading cause by 2030.
Like the completely crazy crime of "jaywalking" in the US or maybe just LA, aka crossing a road unless specifically allowed to do so at a traffic light. Which is just mad. keep to the Fen Causeway
Pedestrians have the right of way absent a traffic light. But that doesn't stop people in cars from running them over. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
Not having sidewalks and bike-lanes places too much emphasis on the rights of the car. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
And it gets better: Even when the cyclist throws its bike underneath a car on purpose, the car driver is guilty.
That's putting the rights of the car in its right perspective, if you'd ask me...
I know, shocking. Of course we will never be a civilized as Europe. But of the nearly infinite injustices and dangers and let's face it, horrors endemic to American culture, "crossing a street" is not really at the top of that list.
I wasn't trying to show you the length of the Dutch penis, or measuring it up to "American culture", never mind make a judgement call in comparison to other problems. Just passing on information from this side of town...
and they are on track to become the fifth-leading cause by 2030.
... if the number of cars in circulation increases as most estimates predict, while ignoring that there never will be enough oil to fuel all of them... In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
