Tripoli 7 January 2013:
According to the General Directorate of Traffic Statistics, there has been a rise in the number of people . . .[restrict]killed on Libya’s roads. The Libyan new agency LANA has quoted the directorate saying that 2,728 people were killed in 2,112 traffic accidents between the beginning of January and the end of November last year.
If correct, the figure makes Libya’s s roads the most dangerous on earth. It would give the country an annual road traffic fatality rate of 49.6 deaths per 100,000 population, the highest figure for any country in the world.
Libya’s rate just before the revolution was 40.5 per 100,000 — still horrific as the third most dangerous place to drive after Eritrea (48.4) and Egypt (42.0).
In comparison, the figure for the US is 12.3, Italy 8.7, France 6.9, Japan 3.9 and the UK 3.6 — meaning that someone is nearly 14 times more likely to be killed in a traffic accident in Libya than in the UK.
According to the new Libyan statistics for the 11 months of last year, there were also 1,568 serious accidents, in which 3,200 people were badly injured and a further 1,271 in which 3,347 people suffered minor injuries.
The Traffic Statistics Directorate also record that the monetary cost of the accidents in terms of vehicles written off or repairs required was LD 19,470,455.
Given that the cost of a reasonable second-hand car is around LD 10,000, this seemingly very specific figure appears low.
The Directorate has called of officialdom and the media to mount awareness campaigns to reduce road accidents and change the current driving culture. [/restrict]
