English abstract
world health day is celebrated by the World Health Organization each year on 7th April and the theme of this year was 'Road Safety'. Road Safety is no accident - and coincides with the release of a World Bank and WHO report (World report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention).1 Road traffic injuries kill 1.2 million people each year and injure or disable as many as 50 million, which represents a 60% increase in the last five years.2 Road crashes are the second leading cause of death globally among young people and affect the most economically active members of the population. It has been reported that 86% of deaths from road traffic injuries occur in low and middle income countries even though these account for only 40% of all motor vehicles.3 In these countries, reasons cited for the high burden include the growth in motor vehicles, higher number of people killed per crash, poor public health structure and poor enforcement of traffic regulations. The Sultanate of Oman has seen very rapid development in the last thirty years and in 2000 WHO ranked number one in improving the level of health of its population.
