Statistics For Small, Or Developing Countries

Bangladesh

(Dec. 2022) ….Nearly 4,000 people are killed every year in road accidents in this South Asian nation. The casualties are blamed chiefly on poorly maintained roads, faulty vehicles, inexperienced drivers, and disregard for traffic rules.
Full story from The Star

According to an official of the Road Safety Cell (RSC) of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the annual fatality rate in road accidents in Bangladesh is 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles, followed by Nepal at 62.7 and Myanmar at 47.7. Experts said that the road accident situation in Bangladesh is very alarming.

In developed countries where the number of motorized vehicles is many times higher, the fatality rate is below three per 10,000 vehicles.
[Source: ‘Road Safety Plan not implementation due to inadequate fund,’ July 16, 2004; News from Bangladesh]

Kenya

“To many, road fatalities are a more pressing worry. Highway deaths now top 70 per 10,000 registered vehicles – a figure 30 or 40 times higher than in developed nations. Over 3,000 Kenyans were killed in accidents last year, despite having fewer than 500,000 registered vehicles [and a population of 32 million people].”
[Source: Mike Ivey, a business reporter at The Capital Times, in this article, dated March 23, 2004.]

Egypt

Road accidents are common in Egypt because of bad roads, high speeds, and poor enforcement of traffic laws. Traffic police statistics showed an estimated 8000 people were killed and 320,000 injured in road accidents in Egypt in 2003.
Full story (November 8, 2004), from the Herald Sun, Australia.

DSA Comment: According to the CIA World Fact Book, the population of Egypt is 76.1 million (July 2004 estimate); thus, according to the estimated figures above, the per capita road crash fatality rate is approximately 10.5 deaths per 100,000 population.

Frankly, at Drive and Stay Alive, we find such a low rate to be well beyond belief and would suggest that the number of people killed on the roads of Egypt must be vastly higher than the 8,000 allegedly mentioned in traffic police statistics.

The per capita rates for 30 countries and all 50 American states may be viewed here.

Malaysia

…..[In Malaysia] accidents involving express buses reached an unprecedented average of 406 a month last year. Bus accident figures rose from 1,963 in 2003 to 4,874 last year. There were 53,470 accidents involving lorries [i.e., large trucks] the previous year.
According to Road Safety Department Director-General Suret Singh, 67 percent of these accidents were due to driver error, 28 percent to bad road conditions, and the rest to the poor state of the vehicles…
Source article here, from the New Straits Times (April 2, 2005)

Mauritius

Road Traffic Accident Statistics — 2002

Myanmar

According to an official of the Road Safety Cell (RSC) of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the annual fatality rate in road accidents in Bangladesh is 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles, followed by Nepal at 62.7 and Myanmar at 47.7. Experts said that the road accident situation in Bangladesh is very alarming.
In developed countries where the number of motorized vehicles is many times higher, the fatality rate is below three per 10,000 vehicles.
[Source: ‘Road Safety Plan not implementation due to inadequate fund,’ July 16, 2004; News from Bangladesh]

Nepal

According to an official of the Road Safety Cell (RSC) of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the annual fatality rate in road accidents in Bangladesh is 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles, followed by Nepal at 62.7 and Myanmar at 47.7. Experts said that the road accident situation in Bangladesh is very alarming.
In developed countries where the number of motorized vehicles is many times higher, the fatality rate is below three per 10,000 vehicles.
[Source: ‘Road Safety Plan not implementation due to inadequate fund,’ July 16, 2004; News from Bangladesh]

South Africa

September 28, 2004: Study finds that lousy driving and unfit vehicles contribute to South Africa’s grim road death figures
DURBAN: Accident rates on South Africa’s roads are among the highest in the world and cost the country over R13 billion each year.
About 10 000 people die, 40 000 are seriously injured, and 110 000 are slightly injured in about 500 000 accidents yearly.
These startling statistics were presented at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Interdisciplinary Accident Research Centre (Uniarc) symposium last week by Des Myers of Phepha International, an associate researcher for Uniarc…

Myers found that most collisions occurred at night and on weekends, with pedestrians making up almost 40% of all road trauma victims.
Over 12% of all victims were children, with the most “at-risk group” aged between six and twelve…

Full story from the Cape Times

DSA Comment: According to the CIA World Fact Book, the population of South Africa is 42.7 million (July 2004 estimate); thus, according to Des Myers’ figures above, the per capita road crash fatality rate is approximately 23.4 and therefore reflects the high death rates experienced in Africa as a whole.

The per capita rates for 30 countries and all 50 American states may be viewed here.

Tanzania

The AfricaOnline website gives a 12-month summary (Sept. 2002)

Uruguay (plus Venezuela, Colombia, and Belize)

The 1998 `Review of Traffic Safety – Latin America and Caribbean Region’ funded by the Inter-American Development Bank reported that Uruguay had one of the highest rates of deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles — 33.4 — in Latin America and the Caribbean, ranking in fourth place after Venezuela (58.4), Colombia (54.9), and Belize (34.2).