Forget terrorism. Forget airplane crashes. It's day-to-day road safety that travelers should be most worried about. In developing countries in...
Seattle Times
TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A Cambodian couple zips through Phnom Penh on an overloaded motorbike.
For safety's sakeU.S. State Department: www.travel.state.gov For general information, search for "road safety overseas." Or go to "Country Information" for traffic-safety advice in individual countries.
World Health Organization: www.who.int (search for "road safety report").
Forget terrorism. Forget airplane crashes. It's day-to-day road safety that travelers should be most worried about.
In developing countries in particular, vehicle accidents are one of the biggest travel threats to visitors — and locals. Buses careen off highways; cars and motorbikes slam into each other; pedestrians are mowed down.
More than 1.2 million people die each year in road accidents, says the World Health Organization, and more than 50 million are injured. It warns those grisly statistics could increase 65 percent over the next 20 years, calling traffic safety a too-often-overlooked tragedy.
Crummy roads; a crush of vehicles, often overloaded and poorly maintained; and rarely heeded traffic rules can make vehicle travel in poor countries a challenge — and a dangerous one at that. Swarms of motorcycles, while cheap and gas-efficient, add to the chaos.
To be fair, developing countries aren't the only ones with dangerous roads and traffic. Three Japanese tourists died in Utah in August when their tour bus rolled off a highway. In Britain, where driving is on the left, American pedestrians regularly step into the streets looking the wrong way. Italy has one of the highest rates of vehicle accident deaths in the European Union.
The U.S. State Department's travel-advice website has country-by-country traffic-safety information. Check it out and hit the road.
Kristin R. Jackson is a Seattle Times Travel editor and writer. Contact her at kjackson@seattletimes.com.
In developing countries in particular, vehicle accidents are one of the biggest travel threats to visitors — and locals. Buses careen off highways; cars and motorbikes slam into each other; pedestrians are mowed down.
More than 1.2 million people die each year in road accidents, says the World Health Organization, and more than 50 million are injured. It warns those grisly statistics could increase 65 percent over the next 20 years, calling traffic safety a too-often-overlooked tragedy.
Crummy roads; a crush of vehicles, often overloaded and poorly maintained; and rarely heeded traffic rules can make vehicle travel in poor countries a challenge — and a dangerous one at that. Swarms of motorcycles, while cheap and gas-efficient, add to the chaos.
To be fair, developing countries aren't the only ones with dangerous roads and traffic. Three Japanese tourists died in Utah in August when their tour bus rolled off a highway. In Britain, where driving is on the left, American pedestrians regularly step into the streets looking the wrong way. Italy has one of the highest rates of vehicle accident deaths in the European Union.
The U.S. State Department's travel-advice website has country-by-country traffic-safety information. Check it out and hit the road.
Kristin R. Jackson is a Seattle Times Travel editor and writer. Contact her at kjackson@seattletimes.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment