Assessing the impact of the WHO Global Status Reports on Road Safety

Sep 29, 2026

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Since 2000, the WHO has issued Global Status Reports to track both the burden of road traffic incidents and the effectiveness of road safety interventions. The fifth and latest report was released in December 2023. This manuscript reviews the reports’ stated objectives and evaluates whether they were achieved, including comparisons with three other health conditions that have similar death burdens and comparable WHO report structures. It concludes with recommendations to broaden actors, standardize non-fatal injury definitions, and strengthen research, communications, and country profiling.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

What is already known on this topic

What this study adds

How this study might affect research, practice or policy

Objectives of the Global Status Reports on Road Safety

Special feature Assessing the impact of the WHO Global Status Reports on Road Safety Maria Segui-Gomez , 1,2 Fangfang Luo , 1 Claes Tingvall ,3,4 Matthew Peter Taylor 1 1Safety and Mobiliy Unit, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland 2Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain 3Chalmers University of Technology, Goteborg, Sweden 4Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Correspondence to Dr Maria Segui-Gomez; [mariaseguigo](mariaseguigomez@gmail.com)[mez@gmail.com](mariaseguigomez@gmail.com) Received 16 October 2024 Accepted 8 June 2025 © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group. To cite: Segui-Gomez M, Luo F, Tingvall C, et al. Inj Prev Epub ahead of print: [please include Day Month Year] . doi:10.1136/ip-2024-045536 ABSTRACT Since 2000, the WHO has produced a series of Global reports to monitor the burden of road traffic incidentsand road safety interventions. The fifth and latest Global Status Report on Road Safety was released in December 2023. This manuscript reviews the stated objectives for these reports and provides an assessment of their achievement. Whenever appropriate, we compare the burden and progress in preventive or curative interventions of three other health conditions with comparable numbers of deaths and for which similar WHO reports exist. We conclude with recommendations for future road safety status reports. These include covering private sector actors, creating a standard definition for non-fatal injuries, commissioning new research to determine additional best practice legislation, refining some UN voluntary performance target indicators, producing country profiles for all WHO member states and enhancing communications and advocacy. INTRODUCTION In 2003, the WHO declared road traffic injuries to be one of three neglected epidemics.1 In 2004, WHO published the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention,2 where global data on road crash deaths and injuries were first discussed at length, yet no country-level data were collected. The first Global Status Report on Road Safety was released in 2009.3 It included country-level data on road traffic deaths. In 2010, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) declared the Decade for Action for Road Safety 2011–2020.4 WHO was commissioned to monitor progress towards the Decade’s target of a 50% reduction in fatal and non-fatal road traffic victims. This role was continued for the Decade of Action 2021–2030.5 To date, five Global Status Reports on Road Safety have been produced, with the latest released in December 2023.6–9 The aims of the reports have expanded overtime. The aims of the first report3 were to generate standardised definitions and measures and to report on progress made by countries in implementing the recommendations in the 2004 World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention.2 The second report6 aimed to describe the burden of road traffic injuries, identify the implementation of effective interventions, assess any changes since the prior report, and identify gaps in road safety nationally. Additionally, it served as a baseline to WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC | ⇒ WHO produces global status reports on a number of health conditions and topics. The Global Status Report on Road Safety is one of such reports with its origins in the early 2000sand five full reports to date.
⇒ The UN mandate is for WHO to report on the status of road safety in the world. Yet, reporting is commonly considered as a first step towards change.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS | | --- | | ⇒ An assessment of the performance of the reports on road safety produced to date.
⇒ A framework to assess status reports on other conditions.
HOW THIS STUDY MIGHT AFFECT RESEARCH, PRACTICE OR POLICY | ⇒ The results suggest areas for further refinement of the reports, the expansion of stakeholders, more related res

FAQs

What do the WHO Global Status Reports on Road Safety aim to monitor?

They aim to track the global situation and evolution of road safety, monitor progress on priority interventions, and assess country-level status and changes from prior reports.

How did the objectives of the reports evolve over time?

The earlier reports focused on standardised definitions, burden description, and implementation gaps, while later reports retained objectives and added new indicators and objectives to strengthen evaluation and research stimulation.

What recommendations does the manuscript propose for future road safety status reports?

Recommendations include covering private sector actors, creating a standard definition for non-fatal injuries, commissioning new research on best-practice legislation, refining UN voluntary indicators, producing country profiles for all member states, and enhancing communications and advocacy.

Sep 29, 2026

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