Every year the lives of approximately 1.3 million people are cut short as a result of a road traffic crash.
Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.
According to the World Health Organizations (WHO) report, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years.
While Europe, the Americas and the Western Pacific have all seen a drop in road traffic death rates, Africa has the highest rate of pedestrian and cyclist mortality.
Dr. Innocent Nizeyimana, and the CEO of Health People Rwanda says that road related accidents are the biggest killer of young people who are the future of the tomorrow”
He further explains that Rwanda is among the countries with the highest number of road related deaths. “While Africa is averaged at 26.6, the average for Rwanda is at 29.7.” He points out.
Dr. Nizeyimana mentioned that one of the reasons why road related accidents do not decrease is that people will take them even though there is a 99% chance that they could have been prevented.
CP Vincent Sano, the deputy director general in charge of operations at Rwanda Police, says that accidents kill people, they also injure many others. There is no excuse for inaction.
“If you look at the stats today, last year in Rwanda, there were more than 9,400 road related accidents, over 600 deaths, while 4,000 were fatalities. It is huge, even if it was just one citizen. It is a concern not just in Rwanda but worldwide.” He explained.
Some of the causes of accidents include careless driving, or over speeding and others, all of which are 99 percent preventable.
Stats from Rwanda Police shows that in the last four years, there were 2022 fatal accidents, 2202 serious injuries while 11,685 minor fatalities were caused by 11297 vehicles.
