TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA TRN-48 TRANSPORT NOTES April 2014 87824 MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA Veronica Raffo, Dipan Bose, and Marc Shotten The epidemic of road injury in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries is rising at an alarming rate (40% increase in 2010 compared to 1990) and is now one of the leading causes of death among young adults as confirmed by recent global reports on road safety. Besides being a major public health burden, road injury also burdens the economy, costing Low and Middle-Income countries around 2% to 5% of their annual GDP. To address this issue there is global recognition of the need for a systemic approach in road safety management and coordination. However, it is crucial to realize that the lack of reliable and comprehensive surveillance data impedes the prioritization of road safety among other national development challenges and priorities. Recent road safety reports have highlighted the shortcomings in the existing data systems prevalent in developing countries. The under-reporting of road death statistics by government agencies may be as high as over 100% of the actual numbers. To illustrate the World Bank’s effort and engagement towards addressing this challenge, this note highlights the development of the first regional road safety data observatory in the LAC region fostered through twinning training arrangements among the Ibero-American countries. The goals of the effort have been to improve capacity for harmonized collection of road injury data, improve sharing of data among relevant stakeholders, and build knowledge to guide policy making and targeted public health interventions. Countries committed to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and its 2020 target for reducing road deaths must ensure technical expertise, in-country capacity and ownership to maintain road safety data systems adhering to international best practice standards. FATALITIES AND SERIOUS INJURIES ARE more effectively is a key element of the Safe UNDER-RECORDED IN DEVELOPING System approach to road safety – an approach COUNTRIES increasingly recognized as the most effective way to make road transport systems safer for Deaths and serious injuries from road traffic all users. The recognition of road deaths and crashes contribute significantly to the global injuries as a global development challenge public health burden. The use of reliable data came with the joint publication, by WHO and to identify problems and target resources the World Bank, of The World Report on Road 1|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA Traffic Injury Prevention; highlighting that 2. Demonstrating the effectiveness of around 1.2 million people die every year interventions that prevent crashes and across the world as a result of road crashes. In injuries; response to this epidemic, governments 3. Using information on traffic management worldwide in 2010 declared 2011-2020 as the and travel behavior to guide policies and Decade of Action for Road Safety with an interventions to minimize the impact of road ambitious target of stabilizing and reducing, by injuries to the society; 50%, the predicted number of road deaths by 4. Providing information on reductions in 2020. Towards this endeavor, the 2013 Global socio-economic costs that can be achieved Status Report (GSRRS, 2013) reported that 88 through effective prevention of road injuries. countries have managed to reduce the number of deaths on their roads, however; stabilizing Unfortunately, most Low and Middle-Income the burden of road deaths remains a challenge Countries (LMIC) either lack a central road in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), safety data management system or the official which unfortunately account for 90% of global estimates reported from single agencies road deaths. (typically police or transport departments) have not been verified for accuracy. The 2009 In order to meet the targeted reduction in road WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety injuries, as outlined under the UN Decade of conducted the first global survey of official Action, it is necessary for country national road safety statistics, which when governments to first understand the compared with WHO mortality models, magnitude of the road injury burden in order suggested significant under-reporting of the to make substantial political and economic problem (Figure 1). In the updated figures for commitments to address the problem. To this 2013, two of the largest contributors to global effect, reliable and accurate data is essential road deaths, India and China, were under- for the different stakeholder agencies (e.g., reporting road death estimates by 78% and transport department, police and enforcement 300% respectively, when official estimates agencies, road works, emergency care were compared with death registry data. A services, education, legal systems) to prioritize report on Transport for Health (World Bank road safety by: and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation), shows that countries in Sub- 1. Documenting the nature and magnitude of Saharan Africa are estimated to under-report the road traffic injury problem; road crashes by over 500%. 2|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA Figure 1. Estimates of under-reporting of road deaths based on official statistics as reported in the 2009 WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety. Besides the accuracy of the data systems, there ROAD SAFETY IN LATIN AMERICA AND are methodology standards which must be THE CARIBBEAN complied with, to be useful for informing road safety practice. Therefore, while daily road A recent publication by the WHO and Pan safety data is captured in most countries, there American Health Organization (PAH0, 2013) are technical gaps in coding, processing and indicated that in the Americas, road injury is maintaining computerized database systems. the leading cause of death for children aged 5- The WHO manual on Data Systems (WHO 14 and second leading cause for the age group 2010), gives practical guidance on establishing 15-44. In Latin America and Caribbean region data systems that produce timely, reliable data (LAC), 110,000 lives were lost due to road on road traffic injuries that can be used to traffic crashes, with an average mortality rate inform road safety management. At a of 19 deaths per 100,000 population (among minimum, good road crash data systems the sub-regions the average mortality rate per should: 100,000 population ranges between 14.4 in Non-Spanish speaking Caribbean1 to 22.2 in 1. Capture nearly all crashes that result in the Spanish speaking Caribbean 2 sub-regions). death and a significant proportion of those This is particularly alarming as the number of that result in serious injuries; aggregate road deaths in 2010 has increased 2. Provide adequate detail on the vehicle, the by 40% compared to the 1990 estimates road user and the road/environment to shown by the Global Burden of Diseases study assist with identification of causes, and (GBD 2013). selection of countermeasures; 3. Include accurate crash location information; 1 Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, 4. Provide reliable output in a timely manner Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and to facilitate evidence-based decisions. Tobago 2 Cuba and Dominican Republic 3|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA Among the victims of road traffic crashes, the crashes 3. A related report prepared for the vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, Inter-American Development Bank (Bhalla, bicyclists and motor-cyclists, are particularly 2013) indicated that countries like Colombia, affected. Based on the GBD study for 2010 Argentina, Mexico and Paraguay lost up to 3% estimates, passengers of motorized vehicle (3 or 4% of their national GDP as a result of road or more wheels) account for 42% of all deaths traffic injuries. Historically, time-trend data followed by pedestrians with 35% of all deaths has indicated that with economic prosperity in 2010. In terms of time trends, while deaths and efficient management of road safety due to road injuries has increased by 35% systems, countries have been able to improve compared to 1990 statistics, the increase for their road safety performance. However in the bicyclists and motorized two-wheeler riders LAC region, no distinct difference in the road has been 110% and 79%, respectively, safety performance was observed between the confirming the increasing burden on Upper-Middle Income Countries and the Low vulnerable road users. and Lower-Middle Income countries as shown in Figure 2. Comparisons across countries in LAC show that Upper Middle-Income countries such as While a significant number of countries in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Ecuador region have established a dedicated lead have fatality rates in excess of 25 per 100,000 agency for road safety (27 of 32, Global Status population. Interestingly, the vehicle Report 2013), only 12 of them have an annual registration rate in these three countries is budget devoted to implementing a road safety below 300 vehicles per 1000 population - a national strategy. significantly lower rate compared with North American countries (over 700 registered vehicles per 1000 population). As highlighted in the PAHO 2013 report on the Region of the Americas, North America has 66% of the vehicles but accounts for 28% of all road deaths. On the other hand, sub-regions like the Andean, Mesoamerica and the Southern cone, have a 4%, 9% and 20%, share of vehicles respectively, but contribute to 16%, 17% and 36% of the overall share of road deaths in the region. Figure 2. Relationship between GDP per capita Besides taking a toll on human lives, road income and road fatalities per 100,000 population traffic crashes also incur a huge economic loss for all LAC countries (iRAP, 2013) to the country governments in the region. On It should also be noted that only around half of average LAC countries lose around 4.4% of the countries in the region have their GDP as a result of road traffic crashes comprehensive laws on drink-driving, helmet which adds up to an estimated loss of USD 246 use, seatbelt use, and child restraints. The lack billion every year. Venezuela and Dominican Republic in particular, lose a staggering 9.1% and 10.2%, respectively, of their GDP to road 3Findings of the International Road Assessment Program, 2013 4|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA of legislative measures with accompanying arrangement was initiated between the ANSV enforcement capacity has serious National Observatory and the Spanish consequences for the vulnerable road users Directorate General of Traffic (DGT). The like pedestrians, bicyclists and motorized two- twinning program involved study tours to wheel riders as they contribute significantly to Spain, development of methodological tools, the overall proportion of road crash victims. and expert guidance on the capacity building activities mentioned below: ESTABLISHING THE IBERO-AMERICAN REGIONAL ROAD SAFETY • Assessing the current metrics and OBSERVATORY statistical information management system, together with the processes Building Capacity for Data Systems in employed for data gathering, loading and Argentina processing used by the Road Observatory. The World Bank has played a significant role • Establishing a working group comprised of in placing road safety on the political and experts from ANSV/DGT, dedicated to developmental agenda in the LAC region. In technical assistance tasks. 2008, the Argentina National Road Safety • Designing technical elements to ensure the Agency (ANSV), a decentralized lead agency objectiveness of data gathering. with financial autonomy and legal capacity, • Designing and developing a program was established within the Ministry of Interior. focused on data gathering and processing, To support the mission of ANSV in reducing with standardized practices to allow for road traffic crashes along its high risk the inclusion of the ANSV Database in the corridors, the World Bank financed a stand- IRTAD group. alone project to provide strategic guidance for • Training the technical teams from all the strengthening the institutional framework and jurisdictions at the national, provincial and improving the management of road safety municipal levels, in order to ensure an interventions. The project included a key adequate data analysis and quality in component of USD 10 million for developing a preparing the diagnoses and reports. road safety monitoring and evaluation system • Monitoring and evaluation of progress in within the ASNV-National Road Safety the improvements implemented by the Observatory. The goal of this task was to ANSV as part of the Bank financed project. develop a comprehensive crash data Establishment of the Regional Road Safety management system by integrating the Observatory - OISEVI existing frameworks from individual provinces at the national level. Further, it was envisioned The improved capacity for data collection and to incorporate best practices guidelines maintaining a data management system outlined by the OECD’s International Traffic resulted in the inclusion of Argentina in the Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) using IRTAD Group (see box on page 7). The World a peer-based mentoring program with the Bank-led twinning initiative in Argentina, OECD countries. contributed to a broader cooperation regarding road safety among the LAC With support from the World Bank, the Global countries particularly on important issues like Road Safety Facility (GRSF), and the Spanish harmonized data collection and sharing Government, a pilot training/twinning mechanisms. Following the 9th and 10th 5|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA Ibero-American meetings of Heads of Road technical teams of the IRTAD network. There Safety and Traffic Agencies, held in May 2010 is also a Cooperation Committee composed of in Montevideo (Uruguay) and in May 2011 in international organizations like development Mexico City, 18 countries 4 agreed to create the banks, PAHO, regional NGOs, research Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory institutions and universities, among others, (OISEVI). The OISEVI’s main objective is to that provide technical and financial support to share relevant information about road safety OISEVI activities in the region. indicators and best practices concerning Outcomes and Current Challenges policy-making, planning and other topics related to road safety. The program also linked the participating countries to the IRTAD With the establishment of the OISEVI with 22 resources on harmonized data collection affiliated countries, the leading governments methods (the “IRTAD-LAC Database”). have pledged to increase allocation of resources to reduce the incidents of road Supported by the World Bank-led Global Road traffic crashes. Along with the World Bank, Safety Facility (GRSF), the monitoring program other regional development partners, namely was scaled up to link 22 countries in the the Inter-American Development Bank and region to create the initial framework and Latin American Development Bank, are co- web-based platform for the Ibero-American financing initiatives led by the OISEVI. The Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI). A Observatory mandate includes the promotion Memorandum of Understanding between the and exchange of information and statistics OECD’s IRTAD Group and OISEVI countries between member countries; collecting, was signed at the end of 2011 to formalize the harmonizing and disseminating accident data; agreement to set up a regional road safety and use of information and conclusions to database, based on the IRTAD model. identify particular matters to conduct further The OISEVI is governed by its General research on road safety improvements. Assembly, composed of all its member states, Up to date the Observatory has produced the which holds annual meetings. Its executive following outputs: body is the Steering Committee, which is composed of five member states, elected by • Three annual reports consolidating the General Assembly and rotating every two regional road safety data; held three years. Technical activities are managed by the annual training workshops for national Technical Secretary, who is appointed by the data collection teams; Steering Committee for a two-year period. The • Technical conferences on specific topics Technical Secretariat is in charge of (for example, workshop on motorcycle coordinating data collection and analysis, safety held in Sao Paulo in November which is then consolidated into the OISEVI's 2013); annual reports and published in the IRTAD- • Baseline data to analyze behavior changes LAC database, in cooperation with the in pilot countries through the carrying out of observational surveys on specific risk 4Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa factors (use of seat belts, distraction Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, factors, use of child restraints, drunk- Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela driving); 6|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA • Guidelines on setting up a national/local INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC SAFETY DATA AND road safety observatory; ANALYSIS GROUP (IRTAD) • Training workshops for regional media in the region; among other outputs. In 1988, the OECD Road Transport Research Program established the International Road • A cooperation agreement between the Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) as a Observatory and IRTAD to create a mechanism for providing an aggregated database, regional chapter for LAC as part of this in which international accident, victim and traffic- system data are collected on a continuous basis. global network linked to OISEVI, and the IRTAD comprises both a database and a working setting up of a web site to host the group: Observatory and database. The IRTAD database includes accident and traffic This project is continually scaled-up through data and other safety indicators for 32 countries. the inclusion of additional countries seeking to The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis enjoy the benefits of the OISEVI. The next Group (known as the IRTAD Group) is an on-going phase of this project in particular will serve to working group of the Joint Transport Research of utilize baseline statistics to measure the the OECD and the International Transport Forum. It is composed of road safety experts and region's compliance and progress towards the statisticians from renowned safety research UN's Decade for Action road safety indicators institutes, national road and transport and goals. The results of this evaluation and administrations, international organizations, universities, automobile associations, motorcar analysis will subsequently guide future road industry, etc. Its main objective is to contribute to safety efforts in the region. At the regional international co-operation on road accident data level, the launching of the OISEVI ensures the and its analysis. availability of data which will support regional At present the following countries are included: M&E efforts and is critical for the design and Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the implementation of effective results-based Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, programs. Germany, Greece, Hungary Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea (South Korea), Luxembourg, As this initiative moves forward, there remains Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, a significant gap in technical capacities Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, -, the USA, the UK. amongst member countries regarding collection, processing and publication of road safety data. The next phase of this project seeks to utilize baseline statistics to measure the region's compliance and progress towards RESOURCES FOR IMPLEMENTING ROAD the UN's Decade for Action road safety SAFETY DATA INITIATIVES indicators and goals. The results of this • World Bank-led Global Road Safety Facility evaluation and analysis will subsequently (GRSF), a global partnership program guide future road safety efforts in the region established in 2006 with a mission to help and beyond. address the growing crisis of road traffic deaths and injuries in low and middle income countries. The Facility provides funding, knowledge and technical assistance services with the aim of achieving 7|Page TRN-48: MEASURING ROAD SAFETY PERFORMANCE THROUGH REGIONAL OBSERVATORY IN LATIN AMERICA sustainable results and leveraging REFERENCES investments opportunities in client countries. Bhalla, K, 2013. The Cost of Road Injuries in • World Bank Institutional Development Fund Latin America 2013. Inter-American Development Bank, Technical Note – IDB-TN- (IDF) that has been recently redesigned with 597. a stronger focus to enhance the delivery and implementation of programs that will lead GBD, 2013. Institute for Health Metrics and ultimately to better development results. Evaluation, Human Development Network, Therefore there will be stronger alignment The World Bank. The Global Burden of with the twin goals of the World Bank Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Group: ending extreme poverty and boosting Policy – Latin America and Caribbean Regional Edition. Seattle, WA: IHME, 2013. shared prosperity. Road Safety projects that are aligned with the Bank’s twin goals could GSRRS, 2013. Global Status Report on Road also benefit from IDF support. Safety, World Health Organization, 2013. • Aside from World Bank resources there are also opportunities for partnerships with the GRSF 2014. Global Road Safety Facility, The Private Sector to leverage road safety World Bank; Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Transport for Health: The Global resources. For example, GRSF and the oil Burden of Disease from Motorized Road company TOTAL launched an initiative in Transport. Seattle, WA: IHME; Washington, Africa along the main transport corridors DC: The World Bank, 2014. starting with the Northern and Central corridors. PAHO, 2013. Road Safety Facts in the Region of • Multi-Development Banks Road Safety the Americas, 2013, Pan American Health Initiative, which was launched in 2009 to Organization. jointly leverage country and regional road WHO 2010. Data systems: a road safety safety program to help accelerate knowledge manual for decision-makers and practitioners. transfer, strengthen institutional capacity, World Health Organization. and scale up road safety investment. Since then, this initiative has led to several joint projects. Under this Initiative, the World FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Veronica Raffo, Senior Infrastructure Bank is partnering with the European Specialist, LAC Investment Bank to jointly address road (vraffo@worldbank.org) safety in Morocco and possibly Egypt and Jordan. Dipan Bose, Transport Specialist, Global Road Safety Facility (dbose@worldbank.org) Marc Shotten, Senior Transport Specialist, Global Road Safety Facility (mshotten@worldbank.org) World Bank Global Road Safety Facility website: http://www.worldbank.org/grsf 8|Page