Deaths and injuries from car accidents: an intractable problem?

This paper presents an analysis of the implications of motorisation in emerging economies for deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents. It is shown that emerging economies have high rates of death and injury alongside low vehicle ownership rates. If vehicle ownership rates increase, so too could be the rate of deaths and injuries. Taking a broad view of automobility culture to include cars, infrastructure, legal systems, medical services, and populist views of motoring, it is argued that reducing the human cost of motorisation (and making motorised mobility more sustainable) cannot be achieved only by technical fixes to the car. Rather, approaches that are sensitised to the particularities of place, and resonant with distinct cultures of automobility, represent the most likely means to achieve more sustainable mobility.