Road accidents are world's biggest killer of teenagers

ROAD accidents outstrip AIDS, cancer or any other disease as the biggest cause of teenage death around the world. Nothing else takes more lives of people aged 15 to 19, according to the Lancet today.

Road traffic accidents, or RTAs, were also the second most likely cause of death for ten- to 14-year-olds, and 20- to 24-year-olds. They were the third most common reason for children aged five to nine to die.

The problem was worst in poorer countries, according to an editorial in the medical journal. The latest available complete figures showed that in 2002, an estimated 380,000 young people died in road accidents. Of these, more than half lived in Africa and south-east Asia.

The grim statistics are from a World Health Organisation report due to be released on Monday.

The report coincides with the start of the first UN Global Road Safety Week, during which an estimated 7,000 people under 25 will die on the roads.