This road safety country data presents information on all pillars of road safety (management, roads, speed, vehicles, road users, and post-crash care), along with information on the current status for each country and region along with extensive information on key risk factors, issues and opportunities.
To produce positive road safety outcomes, strong management in all aspects of road safety is key. Presence of a funded lead agency to guide the national road safety effort and implement a Safe Systems approach is recommended.
Bhutan has a lead agency present, Road Safety and Transport Authority (RSTA), Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC), which is funded in the national budget, and has a road safety strategy which is partially funded. The functions of the agency include coordination, legislation and monitoring and evaluation of road safety strategies. The country has both a fatal and non-fatal road safety target, to reduce fatalities to less than 8 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles annually with a timeline of 2016 - 2018.
Improved infrastructure provides solid and well understood crash and injury reduction outcomes and are critical for long term and
sustainable trauma reduction in line with the Safe Systems Approach. The International Road Safety Assessment Programme (iRAP)
provide a business case for safer roads and road star ratings which give a simple and objective measure on the level of safety which
is 'built-in' to the road for the road users. 5 Star roads are the safest while 1 star roads are the least safe.
Business Case for Safer Roads
Infrastructure and Speed Management Investment required:
$0.21 billion
Annual Investment as a % of GDP (2019-2030):
0.65%
Reduction in fatalities per year:
46
Approximate reduction in fatalities and serious injuries (FSI) over 20 years:
Good post-crash care reduces deaths and reduces disability and suffering for road crash survivors. The emergency medical care system elements and processes need to be effective to attain this objective.
National Emergency Care Access Number:National, Multiple Numbers
Traume Registry System:None
Country Health Coverage Index - SDG Target 3.8; Target - 100:59
Expenditure on Healthcare as % of GDP:4%
REFERENCES
Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018. World Health Organization;
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). GBD Results Tool. Seattle, WA: IHME, University of Washington, 2015;
Serious injuries have been calculated assuming a ratio of 15:1 (15 serious injuries for every death). This estimation broadly falls in the range of 30:1 in high income countries to 10:1 in low- and middle-income countries as crashes tend to be more fatal in the later context.
Vaccines for Roads, International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP). Available from https://www.vaccinesforroads.org/;
World Bank Databank for Development Indicators;
M.H. Cameron, R. Elvik. 2010. Nilsson's Power Model connecting speed and road trauma;
Austroads. Balance between harm reduction and mobility in setting speed limits;
UNEP-ITC Background Paper on Used Vehicles Globally and Various Media Sources (Wikipedia and vehicle import websites);