Skip to main content

Myanmar road safety concern

Concern is being expressed at the rapid rise in road deaths in Myanmar. The road fatality rate has increased substantially in recent years, as has the number of vehicles on the country’s road network. In the period from 2009-2014, the number of registered vehicles in Myanmar more than doubled. And in 2014 the World Health Organisation highlighted its concern that Myanmar’s road death rate had more than tripled in less than 10 years. According to official data, Myanmar had over 15,000 road crashes, 25,000
April 7, 2016 Read time: 1 min
Concern is being expressed at the rapid rise in road deaths in Myanmar. The road fatality rate has increased substantially in recent years, as has the number of vehicles on the country’s road network. In the period from 2009-2014, the number of registered vehicles in Myanmar more than doubled. And in 2014 the World Health Organisation highlighted its concern that Myanmar’s road death rate had more than tripled in less than 10 years.

According to official data, Myanmar had over 15,000 road crashes, 25,000 injuries and 4,000 road deaths in 2015. Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu and Irrawaddy had the highest casualty rates. Key safety issues include a widespread failure to use helmets while riding motorcycles or seatbelts when in cars. Driving under the influence, using cellphones at the wheel and speeding are also known to be major causes of crashes in the country.

Related Content

  • Tackling Indian road safety
    December 5, 2012
    India’s road safety record is the world’s worst but there are plans to tackle the problems. Patrick Smith reports from New Delhi. A speeded up video of a short section of road in the Indian capital Delhi was followed by a question. “How many infringements did you count in that 25-second clip on a typical day in Delhi,” asked Dr Rohit Baluja, a question that brought understandable silence. It equated to hundreds of millions of infringements each year, said Dr Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Educ
  • Cutting speed to cut crashes and boost safety
    February 10, 2021
    Cutting speed can help cut crashes and boost safety.
  • Germany's worrying road safety issue
    May 14, 2012
    The latest data from Germany's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, reveals a worrying increase in road related fatalities in the first three quarters of 2011. The death rate on the country’s roads rose by 5.9% to 2,938 for the period in comparison with 2010. However, the overall number of road accidents reported by the German police dropped by 1.4% to 1.71 million. These are preliminary figures and final data has still to be made available but the news of the increasing death rate gives major cause for con
  • Road safety under scrutiny in Japan and New Zealand
    January 18, 2023
    Road safety is under scrutiny in Japan and New Zealand.