Road Safety in Latin American Countries

This article, from a special issue on road safety, briefly summarizes the road safety situation in Latin American countries. The author reports on the evolution of good practices in road safety that traffic authorities have implemented in their home countries since 2002. Issues considered include the sharing of information and road safety strategies between countries, road safety education, and first aid at the scene of an accident. The author also describes ta declaration approved at the Council of Latin American Transport and Infrastructure Ministers (September 2008, San Salvador) that supported the creation of a Latin American Association on Road Safety; this Association is now being organized. The first goal of the Association will be to gather accident data, with minimum parameters, in order to collect reliable statistics that can be compared among all Latin American countries. A second goal will be to establish driver training and evaluation, and regulations for validating driver's licenses issued by any country in the Region.