Nearly 1.2 million people died from road accidents in 2002. Credit: © WHO

Governments should target road safety in order to avoid soaring casualties, members of the World Health Organization agreed late last week.

Health ministers meeting at WHO's annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, discussed the issue of road traffic injuries for the first time in 30 years.

Nearly 1.2 million people died in 2002 from road accidents, the vast majority of them in developing countries. As such countries become increasingly motorized, road accidents are expected to climb and, by 2020, rank third in WHO's Global Burden of Disease, above HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

WHO already made road safety the focus of its World Health Day on 7 April; and the UN General Assembly discussed the issue for the first time the same month. Last week, ministers at the World Health Assembly passed a resolution that commits them to focusing on road safety in their countries.

Cutting injury rates involves basic policies such as introducing and enforcing seat belts, helmet laws, speed limits and bans on drink driving, says Margie Peden, who put together a recent report on the issue and is the leader of WHO's Unintentional Injury Prevention Team.

Limited funding and a lack of experts are some of the biggest obstacles, Peden says. A successful prevention strategy involves pulling together health workers, police, car designers and road planners among others. "It's looking at it holistically," she says.