Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aim to halve road traffic deaths and provide safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all. Achieving these targets will be challenging if multi-sectoral evidence-based interventions are not implemented and scaled up, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where 90% of all deaths due to road traffic injuries (RTI) take place and the poorest billion live. The objective of this study is to (1) review the literature for effective evidence-based interventions for RTI, and (2) conduct estimations on the number of lives potentially saved by each intervention in LMIC. We conducted a systematic review of all evidence available on interventions on RTI. Furthermore, we estimated the potential effect that these interventions would have if implemented in each country. We obtained parameters from the GBD2015 study and the GSRRS2015. We estimated the number of lives saved using a Monte Carlo simulation and a triangular distribution with 10 000 iterations for each intervention and country. We obtained values for the point estimates and standard deviations of the lives saved by each intervention for each type of injury and country. Statistically significant results on mortality were presented by only six interventions for road injures and three for drowning. The most effective interventions are speed and drinking and driving enforcement for RTI and formal swimming lessons and the use of crèches for drowning. In this study, we provide evidence on the lives saved by different road safety intervention and highlight the scarcity of data on the effectiveness and mortality impacts of injury interventions. These results will be of interest for policy makers in LMIC as well as funders committed to road safety.

This work has been published in: Lancet Global Health 6 (5):523–534. 2018.