Publications

It is well-documented that road crashes claim around 1.35 million lives each year and rank as the eighth leading cause of death globally, causing huge burdens for economies, health systems, and transport networks. However, beneath the sobering fatality statistics lies a largely unexplored landscape: the staggering toll of disabilities induced by road crashes. Until now, the focus of road safety research and policy discourse has predominantly revolved around fatalities, which has limited our understanding of traffic-related injuries and disability burdens at the individual, community, and national level.

To address this critical knowledge gap, this pioneering study—involving over 2,300 patients hospitalized for road crash injuries—provides valuable insights into the prevalence, causes, and long-term impacts of crash-related disabilities. By broadening the discussion beyond fatalities to the often-overlooked issue of disability, the report paves the way for a more holistic perspective on road safety impacts, which can inform more effective road safety policies.

This report is a call to action for comprehensive and context-specific interventions that encompass both the transport and health sectors. Effective measures may include implementing safety regulations, enhancing emergency services, strengthening rehabilitative care, and expanding social safety nets to ease the financial burden on crash survivors. Collaborative efforts between governments, global and regional organizations, civil society, and other stakeholders will be indispensable.

In developing countries with inadequate public transport and road infrastructure, motorcycles present a fast, cheap, and efficient transport alternative. Motorcycles are widely used in many African countries for personal and public transport, as well as for service delivery. In some African countries, motorized two and three-wheelers constitute the largest proportion of the motorized vehicle population. However, despite their benefits, motorcycles expose their riders and passengers to a high risk of serious injury or death in the event of crashes. Motorcycle safety is therefore a significant problem in Africa. On average, 22.5% of road traffic deaths in 2016 involved riders/passengers of two- and three-wheelers, according to the last data published by World Health Organization (WHO, 2018).

This research study presents comprehensive strategic recommendations on how to improve motorcycle safety in Africa. The study will serve as policy advice and technical assistance to the Bank’s regional member countries (RMCs). The study focuses on motorcycle safety conditions in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Uganda, where the use of motorcycles for daily activities is reputedly high. Recommendations are predicated on an examination of the major causes of motorcycle crashes and injuries, as well as an extensive body of knowledge from various sources, notably:

• international literature and good practices on motorcycle safety;
• assessment of motorcycle crashes, regulations, risk exposure data, risk indicators in African countries (with more detailed analysis of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Uganda); and
• consultations with stakeholders.

After almost two decades of experience with Road Safety Audit (RSA) Worldwide, this procedure is now recognized as one of the most efficient engineering tools. RSA is a highly efficient and cost-effective engineering tool for improvement of safety on roads. It is much cheaper to identify road safety deficiencies in the process of design than later after construction is completed. RSAs are among the most cost-effective investments a Road Authority can undertake.

With its EU Directive No. 2008/96 and amendment 2019/1936 on road infrastructure safety management, the European Union (EU) made a clear decision that RSA will be mandatory for the Trans-European Road Network (TERN) and main roads. This Directive contains another tool called Road Safety Inspection (RSI) on safety deficiencies of existing roads. The RSI is very similar to the process of Road Safety Audit in the pre-opening phase of newly constructed roads. RSIs are essential for the redesign and upgrading of existing roads, and these are done in many countries to give the designers insights and direction for safety improvements. Given that, the purpose of this practical guide is to provide practical guidance to those doing RSAs and RSIs, the examples of typical design deficiencies shown should be useful to both road safety inspectors and road safety auditors.

This document draws on the more comprehensive guidelines and manuals on Safety engineering mentioned in the acknowledgements but deliberately focuses only on these issues of direct relevance to road safety auditors/inspectors and to the road safety reports that they must prepare, including of recommendations for improvements.

This is a special edition of the guide, adapted for Ukraine road safety conditions and legislation, funded by the World Bank‘s Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).

Download the guide in English

Download the guide in Ukrainian