Car crashes are killing too many young Africans like Kelvin Kiptum.
Kelvin Kiptum, who set a world-record marathon time this past October at the Chicago Marathon and was expected to contend for gold at this summer’s Olympic Games, died Sunday in a car crash in his home country of Kenya, after his car veered off the road and into a ditch. At just 24 years old, he had run three of the seven fastest marathons ever recorded, including his record 2:00:35 run in Chicago.
Because of Kiptum’s international celebrity, the tragedy drew headlines around the world. But his death reflects a broader epidemic of preventable car crash deaths in the Global South — a pattern that has intensified in recent years, even as car fatalities in affluent countries have been declining (the US is a notable exception).
Last year, the World Health Organization reported that traffic fatalities had increased by 17 percent in Africa over the past 10 years, even as they fell 5 percent overall worldwide. Road crashes are now one of the top causes of the deaths in a continent contending with plenty of other public health challenges.
The rise in traffic crashes may partly reflect Africa’s economic growth in recent years. “Part of the reason for increased fatalities in Africa is the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads,” Nhan Tran, who leads the WHO’s safety and mobility unit, told the Guardian in December. “People who were not able to afford a vehicle 10 or 20 years ago can now buy one. Africa has seen a big increase in motorization, but the infrastructure to facilitate it is not there.”Car crashes and accidental injuries are a public health plague
Worldwide, road traffic crashes kill about 1.
