UN envoy warns: Road crashes still Asia's silent pandemic

Road crashes remain Asia's "silent pandemic," claiming nearly 700,000 lives each year, as the United Nations warned that governments are failing to match promises with funding, enforcement and accountability.

- BY CHRISTINE BOTON

Despite pledges to halve road deaths by 2030, UN data show the region accounts for more than 60 percent of the world's 1.2 million annual fatalities. Motorcyclists are the hardest hit, with deaths in this group rising by one-third over the past decade.

"World leaders committed to halving road deaths by 2030.

We are off-track, but it can still be done," the UN SecretaryGeneral's Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt, who concluded a four-day mission to the Philippines before heading to Thailand, said.