Trends in road traffic crashes,casualties and fatalities in Malawi

Abstract

There were 58,858 road traffic crashes, 39,111 casualties and 8,504 fatalities reported in Malawi between 1987 and 1995. This represented a 31% increase in the number of road traffic crashes, 42% increase in the number of casualties and 105% increase in the number of fatalities during the study period.

The number of licensed vehicles in Malawi increased by 88%, from 43,762 to 82,218, and the number of road traffic crashes per 1000 vehicles decreased by 30% during the same period, from 118.9 to 82.9. The number of casualties per 1000 vehicles decreased by 30%, from 73.5 to 55.6, but the number of fatalities per 10,000 vehicles increased only slightly by about 12%, from 126.8 to 138.7.

Despite a 34% increase in the population of Malawi from 8 million to 10.7 million between 1987 and 1995, only minimal changes were reported in both the number of road traffic crashes per 10,000 population and the casualties per 10,000 population. But the number of road traffic fatalities per 100,000 population increased by 55%, from 6.9 to 10.7.