Road safety is no accident: a call for global action.

Myth: Road traffic injuries are “accidents”. Road traffic injuries do not happen at random and are predictable. This makes them comparable to diseases where an agent, a host and a vector can be defined: the human subject, the vehicle and the transfer of acute energy result in a disruption of normal physiology and functioning (injury). Wilbur Haddon defined the field of injury prevention by focusing on these elements to demonstrate how the times before, during and after a road crash can be studied to identify causative factors (5). The science of road traffic injury prevention has advanced rapidly and needs specific application to low- and middleincome countries (2). Myth: Road traffic injuries are a problem of economic development. Historically, as countries developed (defined by increasing gross national product per capita), road traffic fatalities increased specific investments were made for road safety. This relationship (called Kuznet’s curve) has been described recently; in the