The UN has declared 2011-20 the decade of action for road safety. So why isn't the development agenda targeting road safety? Are car manufacturers ducking their responsibilities? And who is most at risk?
Annie Kelly is joined in the studio by Kevin Watkins, executive director of the Overseas Development Institute, who has done extensive work on global road safety, and Kate McMahon, formerly from the UK's Department for Transport and now a global road safety consultant. On the line from Argentina is Veronica Raffo, a senior infrastructure specialist for the World Bank.
Sajid Chowdhury files a special report from Dhaka asking why Bangladesh's road-safety record is one of the worst in the world: "The number of annual deaths ranges from the official 4,000 to the World Health Organisation's estimate of 20,000, which is alarming for a country that is relatively un-motorised." He meets Najmul Hussain, head of the road safety programme at BRAC, a development organisation dedicated to alleviating poverty, and visits the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed to talk to road-accident patients. He also speaks to Catherine Masud, film-maker and wife of the late director Tareque Masud.
Following an accident in 1997, Bright Oywaya uses a wheelchair. She is now a road-safety activist in Kenya, which has the highest number of collisions in east Africa. She talks about how such accidents are having a catastrophic effect on lives and putting great strain on healthcare systems across the country.
