Every hour, 14 people killed in road crashes throughout Americas

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Every hour, 14 people die in traffic crashes around the Americas, Pan American Health Organization director Mirta Roses said, as the World Bank (news - web sites) and World Health Organization (news - web sites) published a major report on road accidents and guidelines for preventing them.

"In the last 10 years ... more than 1.2 million people have died in collisions, crashes, and run over by vehicles" on the American continent, said Roses during a speech here at PAHO headquarters in Washington.


"We are talking 130,000 people a year, or 356 people per day," added Roses, who heads up the PAHO, regional office of the WHO which this year dedicated its World Health Day to highway safety.


In 2002, 128,908 people died in traffic accidents in the Americas.


More than 76 percent of the deaths occurred on roads in the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, the region's most populous countries, the PAHO said.


In Brazil, where 30,000 people die annually in traffic accidents, some 44 percent of the victims are between 20 and 39 years old, 82 percent of them men.


Because of this situation, "The basic message we are announcing today is that road accidents are a social and public health problem that affect the entire population," Roses said.


The PAHO said that migrants from rural into urban areas run the most risk.


For Hispanics aged up to 34 living in the United States, road accidents are the number one cause of death.


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) found that Hispanics were less likely to wear seatbelts, and that Hispanic adolescents were twice as likely to be killed in a traffic accident despite traveling less by car than other US teens.


The World Bank vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, David De Ferranti, concluded inequality existed in road traffic fatalities. "The poor countries have the higher rates," said De Ferranti, adding: "It's a global developing priority."

Wed Apr 7, 2004   4:13 PM ET Add Health - AFP to My Yahoo!

origin: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1508&u=/afp/20040407/hl_afp/who_health_latam_cars_040407201350&printer=1

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