Myanmar’s poor road safety – cause for concern

Myanmar’s road safety remains a serious cause for concern. Some improvements have been seen in recent times, but more work needs to be done. There were 74,442 road crashes in Myanmar between the start of 2013 and August 2017. These resulted in 122,520 serious injuries and 28,502 fatalities according to data from the Myanmar Police Force. From January to August 2017, there were 12,250 crashes and 3,556 road fatalities, with 49% of the crashes involving motorcycles.
October 13, 2017 Read time: 1 min

Myanmar’s road safety remains a serious cause for concern. Some improvements have been seen in recent times, but more work needs to be done. There were 74,442 road crashes in Myanmar between the start of 2013 and August 2017. These resulted in 122,520 serious injuries and 28,502 fatalities according to data from the Myanmar Police Force. From January to August 2017, there were 12,250 crashes and 3,556 road fatalities, with 49% of the crashes involving motorcycles. The number of vehicles using Myanmar’s road network has increased following the relaxation of import duties in 2011. Overall, the ratio of fatalities from crashes to vehicle numbers has at least seen an improvement. However the country intends to lower road deaths further, having set a target of cutting fatalities by 50% for 2020, compared with the figures for 2014.

Related Content

  • Sri Lanka and India have toughened enforcement on drink driving
    January 8, 2013
    The authorities in India and Sri Lanka are targeting drink driving in a bid to cut crashes. Both countries have high road accident levels and with high annual fatality rates. In a bid to reduce the annual death toll, similar actions are being taken in both nations that focus on tackling drink driving. Data from Sri Lanka show that in 2012, there were 2,190 reported road-related fatalities and of these, negligence and drunk-driving were the main causes of crashes. But despite increased enforcement of traffic
    Read More
  • Increase in fatal vehicle crashes across US
    December 4, 2015
    A worrying increase in fatalities from vehicle crashes has been noted in the US during the first half of 2015. This comes in the wake of several years of improvements in road safety. A new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the first six months of 2015 shows that motor vehicle fatalities increased 8.1% compared to the same period last year.
    Read More
  • French road fatalities increase
    February 21, 2012
    Concern has been raised in France over a worrying increase in road fatalities during January 2011, with the death rate on the countries roads reaching 320, according to early reports.
    Read More
  • Roads to Recovery after the pandemic
    January 11, 2021
    IRF president Bill Halkias shares the Federation’s view on post-Covid
    Read More

Highlighted Content