#makeroadssafe

[pocketglobalhealth]

Angered By Traffic Deaths, Students Began To Direct Traffic In Bangladesh

It started when a bus killed two students in the capital city of Dhaka. Thousands of student prs literally changed the flow of traffic — to the dismay of the government.

[pocketglobalhealth]

Too Little, Too Late, Too Risky: Surgery In Africa

A new survey looks at the state of surgery in Africa. We asked Dr. Forster Amponsah-Manu, a general surgeon in Ghana, about his reaction — and his personal experiences.

[pocketglobalhealth]

Some solutions for improving pedestrian safety

We all have an intuitive sense that pedestrians are particularly vulnerable to road traffic crashes. After all, there is only so much the human body can take. At 30 km per hour, a pedestrian has a 90% chance to survive an impact. But if a vehicle hits you at 50 km/h while you’re walking down the street, that collision will have the same impact a falling from the fourth floor of a building. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms that road crashes do indeed take a serious toll on pedestrians. In 2013, more than 270,000 pedestrians lost their lives globally, representing almost 1/5 of the total number of deaths. In the United States, numbers from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reveal a 46% increase in the number of pedestrians dying on the road, largely due to the expansion of rapid arterial roads in urban and suburban areas. In Peru, where we’re based traffic crashes data pertaining to pedestrians are just as startling. According to the Ministry of Health, almost half of pedestrians involved in a collision sustain multiple injuries, and 22% of them suffer from trauma to the head. The chances of a fatal outcome or other serious consequences are very high.

Post from the World Bank Blog on pedestrian safety