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A global safety charity is calling for more to be done to keep people safe on the roads after finding that road-related accidents are the most commonly named safety concern for people around the world.
The figures come from the latest edition of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, and are explored further in its latest report: ‘What the world worries about: global perceptions and experiences of risk and harm’. The data was collected by global analytics firm Gallup, who conducted 147,000 interviews in 142 countries and territories around the world, and found that road-related accidents remain the greatest perceived risk to safety in adults’ daily lives – just as in previous editions of the Poll stretching back to 2019.
When asked to state, in their own words, the single biggest risk to their personal safety, 16% of global adults named road-related accidents – more than mentioned any other risk. Specifically addressing this concern, over three quarters (76%) of adults globally say they are worried that road-related accidents could cause them serious harm – an increase of five percentage points compared to 2021.
People who have personally experienced harm from road-related accidents are unsurprisingly much more likely to be ‘very worried’ about it (59%) than those who have not (32%). More surprising, however, is that people who know someone else who has experienced harm from a road-related accident are almost as likely to be ‘very worried’ about it (45%) as those who have both experienced it themselves and know somebody else who has (48%). This suggests a form of risk habituation, whereby the people most exposed to road-related harm do not worry more than others about it because they have come to accept it as a simple fact of life.
Overall, global experience of serious harm from road-related accidents in the 2023 poll has increased by one percentage point when compared to 2021 (9% to 10%). Some nations have seen significant increases of reported harm, such as China (from 7% in 2021 to 17% in 2023) and Sierra Leone (from 18% to 28%). On a regional level, Southern Asia has the highest proportion of people who have experienced serious harm from road-related accidents (16%), followed by Southeastern Asia (12%).
The report also highlights the other top two perceived risks to safety in daily life after road-related accidents as crime and violence (13%) and personal health conditions (11%). These have both increased by one percentage point since 2021.
Globally, worry about crime and violence has increased from almost three in five (58%) in 2021 to almost two thirds (65%) in 2023. However, personal experience has remained the same since 2021, with one in 20 (5%) reporting first-hand experiences.
“Since the World Risk Poll began in 2019, people around the world have named road-related accidents as the greatest risk to their safety every time. Even amid major global upheavals, including the covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions and economic and cost-of-living crises, people continue to feel most threatened by risk from everyday transportation.
“To enable harm to be reduced, communities must not accept road-related accidents as a fact of life. Even in the absence of vocal public pressure, policymakers should take the initiative to act on such prevalent risks. The findings and data in this latest report should serve as a stimulus and valuable resource to inform action that makes people safer.”
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