28 August 2002: Road traffic injuries are expected to become the third leading cause of death for all ages by the year 2020, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Currently they are the ninth leading cause.

And there is a four times higher rate of death from auto-related injuries in lower/middle income countries than in high income countries, with fatality rates highest in the developing world. Africa is particularly bad.

Researchers led by Adnan Hyder of the Bloomberg School of Public Health have conducted a detailed study in Pakistan, where auto-related injuries are the fifth leading cause of death and the second leading cause of disability.

They also found that 70 percent of childhood injuries occurred to children whose mothers had no education, and people in manual labour professions were three times more likely to suffer road traffic injuries than those in the services.

RTA deaths are likely to skyrocket globally as private transport becomes more available to individuals in developing countries such as China.