As COVID-19 recedes from the front pages, another pandemic, a silent one, continues to claim lives: road crashes. Every year, over 1.2 million people are killed on the roads, and up to 50 million more suffer life-altering injuries. Unlike a virus, we know exactly how to prevent these tragedies, yet we are failing to act.

The global road safety crisis is not just a transportation issue. It is a public health emergency, a development crisis, and a moral test of how much value we place on human life, especially in countries where safety is often considered a luxury. 

More than nine out of ten road deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these places, it is often young people, students, workers, mothers, and fathers who die or are left disabled on their daily journeys. Behind each statistic is a shattered family, a lost future, a preventable tragedy.

Experience has shown that even modest, consistent investment in road safety can yield transformative results.

In Bangladesh, the UN Road Safety Fund (UNRSF) has supported a 24/7 crash victim helpline that connects emergency responders to crash sites, saving lives. Armenia is fixing high-risk crash zones through stronger coordination between the Ministries of Health, Interior, and Infrastructure. In Rwanda, UN-backed helmet standards are now saving motorcyclists from traumatic brain injury and death. The right helmet, compliant with UN Regulation, has been proven to reduce fatal injuries by nearly half. Following this lead, both Morocco and India will now require that every new motorcycle be sold with two helmets, UN-compliant in Morocco, and nationally certified in India.

Across Africa, more than 20 countries are now regulating the import of used vehicles to ensure that only safer cars are on the roads. This not only saves lives, but it also reduces emissions from outdated cars, helping meet climate goals in a region set to see its vehicle fleet quadruple by 2050.

These are not small wins. They are proof that modest, targeted investment works, and that every country can make progress when it has the right support.

We’ve seen it in high-income countries, too. In France, Random Breath Testing has helped curb drink-driving. In Spain, public campaigns have dramatically reduced crash-related deaths. These successes didn’t happen by chance, they happened because leaders invested in saving lives.

But this isn’t happening fast enough, or widely enough. And the reason is depressingly familiar: money.

In 2019, transport injuries accounted for 3% of all deaths in LMICs. Yet development aid to prevent them amounted to less than $400 million, a fraction of what’s needed, and far less funding for other major health threats. For comparison, more people die from road crashes than from HIV or malaria, yet road safety is still treated as a footnote in global health.

This neglect is not just unjust. It is economically reckless. Road crashes cost countries up to 6% of their GDP, draining resources that could otherwise fund schools, hospitals, or clean energy. And they threaten progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 3.6, which aims to halve road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030, and SDG 11.2, which promotes safe, accessible, and sustainable transport for all. 

In February, ministers from more than 100 countries gathered in Marrakesh for the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. The result was the Marrakesh Declaration, which rightly called for road safety to be integrated into national budgets, development strategies, and climate planning. 

We are now halfway through the second UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, and the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on Road Safety is fast approaching. The time to act is now.

Governments must treat it as a core public health and economic priority. Donors and financial institutions should increase support through global financing mechanisms. The private sector must also embed road safety into its corporate responsibility and investment frameworks.

We need seatbelt laws. Helmet standards. Safer road design. Strict speed limits. Emergency response systems. Safer vehicles. Enforcement. Education. Most of all, we need financing to bring these basics to scale.

Be part of the solution. Help fund road safety and end this silent pandemic, once and for all.

Signed by Members of the UNRSF Board:

Jean Todt, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety

Juan Carlos Muñoz, Minister of Transport and Telecommunications of Chile

Alenka Bratušek, Minister of Infrastructure of Slovenia

Mohamed Abdeljalil, Minister of Transport and Logistics of Morocco

Florence Guillaume, Interministerial Delegate for Road Safety, France