High-quality data are the foundation to monitor the progress and evaluate the effects of road traffic injury prevention measures. Unfortunately, official road traffic injury statistics delivered by governments worldwide, are often believed somewhat unreliable and invalid. We summarized the reported problems concerning the road traffic injury statistics through systematically searching and reviewing the literature. The problems include absence of regular data, under-reporting, low specificity, distorted cause spectrum of road traffic injury, inconsistency, inaccessibility, and delay of data release. We also explored the mechanisms behind the problematic data and proposed the solutions to the addressed challenges for road traffic statistics.
Accidental Injuries ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans

Adult ; China ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Substance Abuse Treatment Centers ; statistics & numerical data ; Substance-Related Disorders ; therapy ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Violence ; statistics & numerical data

PURPOSE: Vehicle-pedestrian conflicts are common at road intersections when traffic lights change. However, the impact of traffic light on transportation safety and efficiency remains poorly understood. METHODS: A two-stage study was used to survey the proportion of intersections with conflicting traffic lights and the related transportation efficiency and safety were evaluated as well. First, a cross-sectional study estimated the proportion of signalized intersections with conflicting left-turning vehicle-pedestrian traffic lights in Changsha city, China. Second, a natural experiment compared transportation efficiency and safety between intersections with and without conflicting left-turning vehicle-pedestrian traffic lights. Risky conflicts, where motor vehicles violated laws and failed to yield to pedestrians in crosswalk were used as a surrogate for transportation safety. The number of motor vehicles and pedestrians passing through the intersections per second and per meter were used to estimate transportation efficiency. Data were collected and analyzed in 2015 (from March to December). A search of online news from domestic media sources was also conducted to collect pedestrian injury data occurring at the intersections. RESULTS: About one-fourth (57/216) intersections had conflicting left-turning traffic lights (95% CI: 20.5%, 32.3%). Risky vehicle-pedestrian conflicts were more frequently observed at intersections with conflicting lights compared to those without (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 3.13; pedestrians: IRR = 4.02), after adjusting for type of day (weekday vs. weekend), the time period of observation, and motor vehicles traffic flow. Intersections without conflicting vehicle-pedestrian traffic lights had similar transportation efficiency to those with conflicting lights after controlling for covariates (p > 0.05). The systematic review of news media reports yielded 10 left-turning vehicle-pedestrian crash events between 2011 and 2017, involving 11 moderate or severe pedestrian injuries and 3 fatal pedestrian injuries. CONCLUSION Over one-fourth of road intersections in Changsha city, China have conflicting left-turning traffic lights. Conflicting traffic lights cannot improve transportation efficiency, but increase risky conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Motor Vehicles ; statistics & numerical data ; Pedestrians ; statistics & numerical data ; Safety ; Time Factors ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

PURPOSE: This research examined road traffic injury mortality and morbidity disparities across of country development status, and discussed the possibility of reducing country disparities by various actions to accelerate the pace of achieving Sustainable Development Goals target 3.6 - to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020. METHODS: Data for road traffic mortality, morbidity, and socio-demographic index (SDI) were extracted by country from the estimates of the Global Burden of Disease study, and the implementation of the three types of national actions (legislation, prioritized vehicle safety standards, and trauma-related post-crash care service) were extracted from the Global Status Report on Road Safety by World Health Organization. We fitted joinpoint regression analysis to identify and quantify the significant rate changes from 2011 to 2017. RESULTS: Age-adjusted road traffic mortality decreased substantially for all the five SDI categories from 2011 to 2017 (by 7.52%-16.08%). Age-adjusted road traffic mortality decreased significantly as SDI increased in the study time period, while age-adjusted morbidity generally increased as SDI increased. Subgroup analysis by road user yielded similar results, but with two major differences during the study period of 2011 to 2017: (1) pedestrians in the high SDI countries experienced the lowest mortality (1.68-1.90 per 100,000 population) and morbidity (110.45-112.72 per 100,000 population for incidence and 487.48-491.24 per 100,000 population for prevalence), and (2) motor vehicle occupants in the high SDI countries had the lowest mortality (4.07-4.50 per 100,000 population) but the highest morbidity (428.74-467.78 per 100,000 population for incidence and 1025.70-1116.60 per 100,000 population for prevalence). Implementation of the three types of national actions remained nearly unchanged in all five SDI categories from 2011 to 2017 and was consistently stronger in the higher SDI countries than in the lower SDI countries. Lower income nations comprise the heaviest burden of global road traffic injuries and deaths. CONCLUSION Global road traffic deaths would decrease substantially if the large mortality disparities across country development status were reduced through full implementation of proven national actions including legislation and law enforcement, prioritized vehicle safety standards and trauma-related post-crash care services.

China/epidemiology* ; Morbidity