While reading a newspaper over the holidays, one of us came across an article with an often common story: “car collision causes mass fatalities on mountain road”. The collision resulted in 52 deaths, after a bus--one of the vehicles involved, plunged down a cliff in Peru.  Many of the dead were returning to Lima after celebrating the New Year’s holiday with family outside the city.

The unfortunate reality is that these tragic events are a daily occurrence across the world.  WHO data in 2015 show that 1.25 million people are killed on the world’s roads each year and another 20-50 million seriously injured. While the human toll is visible although underreported, the intangible costs that negatively impact societies and economies at large are not captured in national statistics.  Data and lack of evidence on the economic and social cost of traffic crashes to inform policy making on road safety has proven to be difficult, especially in developing countries. — blog.wb.org/blogs