Skip to main content

Concern over Latin America’s high road crash rate

Official figures reveal a worrying rate of road crashes within Latin America’s Andean Community of Nations (CAN). The data shows that in 2013, 13,479 people died in vehicle crashes in the CAN group, which includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. A further 141,175 people were injured in the CAN nations in 2013, while there were 347,018 crashes, an increase of 0.2% over the figures for 2012. Ecuador saw a particularly poor safety record during this period with its number of crashes increasing by 18.1%. T
September 8, 2014 Read time: 1 min

Official figures reveal a worrying rate of road crashes within Latin America’s Andean Community of Nations (CAN). The data shows that in 2013, 13,479 people died in vehicle crashes in the CAN group, which includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. A further 141,175 people were injured in the CAN nations in 2013, while there were 347,018 crashes, an increase of 0.2% over the figures for 2012. Ecuador saw a particularly poor safety record during this period with its number of crashes increasing by 18.1%. The road crash rate in Peru was also a cause of concern, increasing 7.4%. However both Bolivia and Colombia saw increasing road safety, with the crash rate falling by 8.3% and 3.9%, respectively. Poor driving was the main reason listed for crashes, accounting for 43.7% of the total. However speeding accounted for 14.6% of crashes and drink and drug-driving for 6.5%. Other non-specified causes were listed as being the reason for 26.7% of crashes.

Related Content

  • US road safety concern
    June 18, 2021
    There is concern over a worrying trend in US road safety
  • Safety gains on Europe’s roads with lower KSI rates
    February 19, 2014
    Better road safety is helping to cut KSI rates right across the EC - Mike Woof writes Road safety continues to improve in Europe, with official statistics for 2012 showing a drop in fatalities of 2,661 compared with the figures for 2011. The latest data from Pan-European police body TISPOL shows an encouraging trend towards better road safety. This highlights safety improvements right across the EU. In 2012, a total of 27,700 people were killed in road crashes in the European Union’s 27 member states, eq
  • India’s poor road safety requires improvement
    September 13, 2016
    The Indian Government has revealed that 146,133 people died in crashes on the country’s roads during 2015. This figure is of concern as it is an increase of 4.6% over India’s road fatality rate of 139,671 for the previous year. Also of concern is the fact that over half of the people who died in crashes were aged from 15-34, revealing that there is a particularly high risk for the young on India’s roads. The data also shows that there were 501,423 reported crashes on India’s road network in 2015, an increas
  • UK road safety gain during pandemic
    October 14, 2021
    The UK has seen a road safety gain during the pandemic.