Ingenieur Vol 73 ingenieur Jan-March 2018 | Page 78

INGENIEUR OVERVIEW OF ROAD ACCIDENT STATISTICS IN MALAYSIA By Akmalia Sabdin Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research R oad traffic injury is one of the ten major causes of death in the world and ranked at eight in 2015 for upper middle-income countries. Approximately 1.3 million people died worldwide because of injuries from road accidents in 2015 and 90% of the crashes occurred in low and middle-income countries (World Health Organisation or WHO, 2017). Half of those dying on the world’s roads are vulnerable road users (motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists). People aged between 15 and 44 years account for 48% of global road traffic deaths. Road accidents cost some low and middle-income countries up to 5% of their gross national product (GNP) (WHO, 2017). Source: WHO Fact Sheet Source: Polis Diraja Malaysi (PDRM) Road Accident Statistics Report, Road Transport Department, Department of Statistics. 6 76 VOL VOL 73 55 JANUARY-MARCH JUNE 2013 2018