The World Health Day 2004 being observed today with the theme of road safety and heralded with the slogan "Road Safety is No Accident" will be seen as carrying a special message for Pakistan where road traffic deaths and injuries continue to acquire ghastlier dimensions with the passing of years.
Special notice of this mounting threat to human lives and limbs has been taken by the World Health Organisation, which has deemed it expedient to draw attention of the governments to the fact that road traffic casualties can be prevented from a combination of efforts.
The promotion of this idea by WHO, instead of any other agency, may be attributed to its concern, among other things, for the human behaviour aspect of its causes.
This has reference to the responses of the people in a widening range to the various aspects of fast increasing use of motorised transportation of goods and passengers, particularly in the developing countries.
Needless to point out, it is the variety of responses of the passengers, the pedestrians, and above all, the drivers of the vehicles in a given situation that set their behaviour pattern, which can often lead to tragic accidents.
And since behaviours are formed in the minds, WHO seems to have found a link between road safety and psychological side of the problem.
It is heartening to learn, as such, that the concern shown by WHO for ensuring road safety has also influenced the World Bank which will be releasing a report on road traffic injury prevention, focusing current knowledge of the global road traffic problem and offering science-based evidence and solutions to address it.
Reference, in this regard, may also be made to the WHO and partners' plan to launch a one-year global road safety campaign, aimed at promoting action to prevent road injuries.
Recalling that at the inquest into the world's first road traffic death in 1896, the coroner was reported to have said "this must never happen again", it has been pointed out by WHO that now, over a century later, 1.2 million people are getting killed on roads every year and that up to 50 million more are injured.
Viewed in this perspective, its fears that these casualties on the roads will increase if preventive action is not taken should arouse man's conscience to doing the needful before it becomes too late.
It will also be noted that while pointing out that roads are bustling the world over with cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds and other two-and three-wheelers, it has been rightly observed that these vehicles support economic and social development everywhere.
Nevertheless, it has been argued that while motorised travel provides enough benefits, it can also cause serious harm in the absence of priority to ensuring maximum road safety.
There can be no denying that Pakistan figures prominently among the countries seized with the hazard of road accidents, which calls for prompt and multi-directional measures to arrest the horrendous increase in traffic related deaths and injuries.
According to WHO, if the current disquieting trends continue, the number of people killed and injured on the world's roads might catapult by more than 60% between 2000 and 2020.
As it apprehends that most of these injuries will take place in developing countries where more and more people are using motorised transport, the likely consequences for Pakistan should leave little to imagination.
The message of the day, of course, lies in the emphasis on loss and suffering associated with road traffic deaths and injuries being preventable, more so from effective interventions used by countries with long histories of motorised transportation, preferably, by adapting them to our peculiar needs and circumstance.
What is actually required to meet the challenge is an integrated approach, duly backed by a strong enough political will.
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