Every 24 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world, will die as a result of a road traffic crash — 1.35 million people each year. Behind each of these individual tragedies is a story. The People’s Survey collected the experiences of citizens around the world to capture how the millions of fatal and nonfatal road traffic crashes affect individuals — the real and personal impacts on people’s lives. This report aims to complement the existing global body of numerical data on road traffic crashes by capturing the human experiences and voices of ordinary citizens around the world. This report provides a summary of the collective responses from 5,606 respondents from 132 countries and territories who completed the People’s Survey. The survey was distributed via newsletter and email communications, social media, and in person in public spaces and was available in 13 languages. A total of 803 respondents also shared their stories about the impact of road traffic crashes on their lives or the lives of people close to them.

These testimonies are presented throughout the report to further capture the impact of road crashes in the very words of our respondents. They included respondents’ experiences of being in a crash, being injured in a crash, or losing someone they loved in a crash and the resulting impacts and emotions. Some testimonies also described the lack of support from health, justice, and insurance systems in their countries and the frustrations of being a road user.

• Road crashes affect many of us — personally or through someone we know — in the form of death, injury, disability, or fear
• Road crashes cause loss of job/income, staying out of work to be a caregiver, abandoning school, and suffering disability; these negative consequences tend to be more common among those with lower education levels
• Whether you have personally experienced a crash or your loved ones have, road traffic crashes can result in psychological problems, avoidance behaviours, living in fear, and the need to seek professional psychological help; these emotional and psychological consequences can linger
• Road users feel unsafe on the road, especially as vulnerable road users — walking, cycling, or on two or three-wheelers
• Speeding and poor road infrastructure are common reasons for feeling unsafe on our roads
• People consider road safety to be an important public health issue Many evidence-based interventions exist to reduce road crashes and their severity, yet not enough is being done to put them into action to prevent this road trauma crisis. The human cost of inaction on road safety cannot be allowed to continue escalating. Strong action is needed now.

This report is being launched on the occasion of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden, February 2020. We call on world leaders to listen to the people’s voices and take urgent action to honor the lives needlessly lost each year and the many millions more people needlessly suffering injuries and disabilities or the excruciating pain of losing a loved one — and, by doing so, to save millions of others from experiencing the same devastating consequences.

The report includes several recommendations for politicians and activists, based on the survey findings, plus recommended areas for further research. We hope that this report can be a glimpse for decision makers into the human impact of road crashes and a resource for civil society activists, to help articulate the cost of inaction for road safety and call for urgent commitment.