Knowledge centre | French road safety observatory

World

In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, developed the Global Plan for Road Safety Action for the 2021–2030 decade. This plan aims to guide and support countries in achieving the objective of reducing road traffic deaths and injuries by 50 % by 2030. To encourage progress across the various road safety risk factors and to monitor implementation, WHO defined 12 voluntary global performance targets, each associated with one or more indicators.

The latest WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety, published in 2023, estimates that 1.19 million people were killed on the world’s roads in 2021, representing a 5 % decrease compared with 2010 (1.25 million deaths). More than half of United Nations Member States reduced the number of road fatalities between 2010 and 2021, despite the global vehicle fleet more than doubling and the world population increasing by one billion. While the report highlights the effectiveness of efforts to improve road safety, it notes that progress remains insufficient to meet the objectives of the Decade of Action.

The 2024 IRTAD report, based on 2023 data, indicates a 1.9 % increase in road deaths between 2013 and 2023 across the 35 IRTAD member countries. When the United States is excluded, fatalities decrease by 12.8 %. This decline is observed in 26 of the 35 IRTAD countries, notably in South Korea (– 49.9 %), Poland (– 43.6 %) and Norway (– 41.1 %). Conversely, nine countries recorded an increase in road mortality, including Colombia (+ 43.2 %), New Zealand (+34.8%), the United States (+ 24.6 %) and the Netherlands (+ 20 %).

Among IRTAD countries with available data for the 2013–2023 period:

-    Car occupant fatalities decreased by 19.2 % ;
-    The number of pedestrian fatalities fell by 29.2 %, with reductions recorded in 23 countries ;
-    Cyclist fatalities decreased by 10.3 %, despite a 150 % increase in Israel ;
-    Powered two-wheeler fatalities increased by 22.2 %, with numbers in particular doubling in Colombia and Chile.

In many low- and middle-income countries, the collection of crash data represents the first step in developing an effective road safety policy. The Lyon Declaration, adopted at the seventh IRTAD Conference in 2022, sets out 14 key orientations in this area.

In early 2025, the fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety was held in Marrakech. Organized by WHO every four years, the conference brought together more than 100 ministers and resulted in the adoption of the Marrakech Declaration, a roadmap aimed at strengthening international commitment to safer and more accessible roads for all. Key measures include the implementation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030 and the reinforcement of national and international commitments.

Legislation is also a key area of action. WHO notes that 170 countries have seat-belt laws, but only 117 require seat-belt use for all vehicle occupants, although this represents an increase of 11 countries compared with 2018.