Streets of Asmara
Dear Readers: this data has nothing to do with the absolute number of deaths, however, the WHO did not clarify the difference between relative and absolute number of deaths. It does not mean that Eritrea has the highest number of accidents in the world. This could perhaps show a bias from the report of the WHO.
capitaleritrea does not intend to say that a conclusion can be drawn from the figures the WHO has presented regarding the road traffic safety in Eritrea. capitaleritrea instead meant to inspire readers to react to the figures generated from the WHO report.
Please read the details below, which explain the report from WHO. You are most welcome to comment and also put it up for discussion.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.3 million people die each year on the world’s roads. Therefore, the WHO has published its first road safety report, which looks into road safety in 178 countries worldwide.
The overall results show that road traffic accidents remain an important public health issue not to be underestimated, especially in low income countries. Pedestrians, cyclists and motor bikers make up almost half of deadly accidents on the road. Road traffic injuries make the ninth place of all causes leading to death behind heart diseases, infections, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, cancer etc.
In respect to Eritrea the report, which is based on data from 2007, reveals that Eritrean roads are not the safest in the world when looking at the death rate per 100.000 inhabitants . In comparison with the 251.422.509 vehicles in the United States Eritrea has 60.840 registered vehicles on the roads.
Despite this low number of registered vehicles, the WHO report states that Eritrea has the deadliest roads in the world in terms of deaths per capita. This is what the WHO report stated. The WHO estimation reveals that Eritrea has a death rate of 48 per 100.000 of population, which is higher than any other country when comparing on the same scale. For example the United States had a death rate of 14 per 100.000 of inhabitants.
Of the total road traffic fatalities in Eritrea 76% involve males and 24% females, which could be due to the fact that mostly male motorists sit behind the wheel in Eritrea. Nevertheless, the report shows also that transport safety in Eritrea is well organised and funded through government institutions. According to the report, Eritrea has a national road safety strategy with measurable national road safety targets.
Depending on the subject some Eritrean laws are better enforced than others, best enforcement ratings get the motorcycle helmet law (9 out of 10 points) and seat belt law (9 out of 10 points) followed by the speed limit law (7 out of 10 points) and drink and driving law (6 out of 10 points). The worst enforcement rating goes to the implementation of the child restraints law (2 out of 10 points).
The second deadliest roads in the world are in the Cook Islands with 45 deaths per 100.000 of population.
August 19, 2009 at 11:24 pm
please see the link and judge yourself http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241563840_eng.pdf. Eritrea doing well. i dont know what are you trying to pass here. please dont fabricate since we can check ourself and judge. i was empressed to know that eritrea is one of those countries has low alchol level <.005 even USA has <.008. here is the fact from WHO " the 10 countries with the highest number of death are: china, india, nigeria, usa, pakistan, indonesia, russia, brazil, egypt and ethiopia." refer to WHO page 12. so please these link for good purposes not for these kind of trash.
August 26, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Selam Hadish,
There is nothing wrong with the report. Eritrea itself acknowledges the fact of the report and makes tremedeous efforts recently to make roads in Eritrea to be safe. The report encourages us to do better than we afford this time when it comes to traffic safety in Eritrea. I don’t take it as defamation to Eritrea. This report is regarding road accidents. If you say about crimes, yes Eritrea is much better than the rest of the world. Eritrea is safe country than the west. Here, the talk is about road traffics. Eritrea which was in long struggel for independence cannnot construct highways overnight. The drivers are not well trained. This is because of econmical constraints. What we have to relize is it is getting better as time passes. I think Eritrea is on the right track. So don’t be offended with some basic facts. It is to the advantage to Eritrea to do better on road traffics.
August 20, 2009 at 10:53 am
@Hadish -statistics speaking - the article refers to the number of deaths per 100.000 inhabitants. Please check yourself and judge: Page 243 - Line 6 - Estimate road traffic death rate per 100.000 population. Looking from this angle Eritrea has the highest number of deaths in road traffic. You cannot compare a country like Eritrea with China or the US on absolute numbers as you did, because (of course) they have a much larger population than Eritrea.