Globally, road traffic crashes cause nearly 1.3 million preventable deaths and an estimated 50 million injuries each year. The Global Plan for the Second Decade of Action on Road Safety 2021-2030 calls on governments and stakeholders to implement an integrated Safe System approach positioning road safety as a key driver of sustainable development. The Plan calls for actions to reach a target of a 50% reduction in the number of road traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030.   

The burden of road traffic injuries and deaths is disproportionately borne by vulnerable road users and those living in low and middle-income countries. It is estimated that developing countries, while having only half of the world's vehicles, account for 90% of road traffic fatalities. Statistics show that over 50% of the world’s road traffic deaths occur among vulnerable road users (e.g. pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists). Two and three-wheeler1 deaths comprise 28% of the total with WHO estimating that in 2013 there were over 286,000 fatalities from motorcycle crashes. Despite decades of effort, this level of trauma has remained largely unchanged.  

In many developing countries, motorized two and three-wheeled vehicles are the dominant vehicle type. Globally, 88% of motorcycle registrations are in low or middle-income countries. Road traffic death and serious injury involving motorcycles in these countries is significant and can exceed 70% of the total national road trauma.   

With this level of representation in the road traffic trauma record, reaching the 2030 UN targets of a 50% reduction in death and injury will not be achieved in many countries unless motorcycling is made safe.   

There is a growing body of expertise on motorcycle safety. Notably in 2021, VTI published Riding in a Safe System with eight priority actions agreed by an international expert group. While not all motorcycle safety risks have proven solutions, it is clear that a very significant amount of trauma could be prevented through implementation of what is known to work.  

On behalf of the global network of Regional Road Safety Observatories, the Asia-Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO) is leading a forum to highlight the growing need to address motorcycle trauma and bring together practitioners to consider what actions are needed. The focus is on low and middle-income countries for whom motorcycling is the dominant road transport mode as clearly these countries face the greatest challenges.  

The APRSO partners for this event include the Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) the Global Network of Road Safety Legislators, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Foundation (FIAF), the Towards Zero Foundation and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). The event Technical Partner is the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS).  

APRSO Annual Meeting 

The 2022 APRSO Annual Meeting follows on from a two-day meeting on motorcycle safety. Many of the same delegates are expected to participate in these two meetings.  

The theme for the meeting is using road safety data to design evidence-based road safety interventions. This theme follows substantial prior focus on the collection of comprehensive and quality road safety data. The objective is to add to member knowledge of how collated data can be used in a arrange of ways to improve evidence-based responses to road safety challenges.  

Hybrid attendance 

Select sessions of both key events will be made available to participants joining remotely via zoom. This will ensure that participants who are not able to travel to Manila can benefit from some of the sessions from across the GRRSO Dialogue on Motorcycle Safety and the APRSO Annual Meeting.  

For those attending in person, they will benefit from the full schedule of events and significant networking opportunities.