Dominican Republic, Cuba, two extremes in LatAm road deaths

Bogotá.- Cuba is LatinAmerica´s only country with a traffic fatality rate under 10 per 100,000, while the Dominican Republic is in the otherend with a 29.3 ratio, according to the latest World Health Organization globalreport on road safety, EFE reports.

The report released Mondayreveals that traffic accidents kill 1.25 million people worldwide each year andinjures 50 million more.

90% of all trafficfatalities occur in the low- and middle income category which includes allLatin Americans, and the reason they face a loss in GDP as high as 5%.

The overall rate ofroad deaths however has stabilized since 2007 despite increased both in thenumber of vehicles in circulation (16%) and people in the world (4%) in thelast three years.

That’s because accordingto the WHO, some of the measures have been effective, but recommends stayingalert to reduce deaths by half by 2020, as the Sustainable Development objectivesstipulate.

The WHO report covers180 countries, among them Venezuela, which according to figures from 2010 had a37.2 death rate in traffic accidents per 100,000 inhabitants.