New research into news reports on road crashes in Africa highlights how news on the continent typically fails to inform the public of the nature, impact and scale of the growing road safety crisis.
Road traffic deaths increased faster in the WHO African Region than any other WHO region between 2010 and 2021, rising by 17%. The WHO African Region accounts for nearly one fifth of the nearly 1.2 million annual road deaths globally, despite holding just 3% of the world's registered vehicles.
News reports influence public attitudes and ultimately, policy choices. Yet new analysis of nearly 1000 news stories from five Anglophone African countries shows that news in Africa typically obscures the fact that road deaths are preventable. News reports largely also fail to cover more systemic causes of road deaths such as poor infrastructure and inadequate laws, regulations and law enforcement.
"This landmark study – the first of its kind ever undertaken in Africa – shows that when it comes to road safety, the news must catch up with the science. The media has a crucial role to play in calling for policies and actions that save lives, so we must help them dig-deeper into the facts, the data and what works in reducing road deaths," says Dr Nhan Tran, Head of Safety and Mobility at WHO.
The report, titled " Content analysis of media coverage of road collisions and road safety in Africa ", was produced by Science Africa with support from WHO and Bloomberg Philanthropies. It covers news stories and video reports from 25 leading media organizations in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania that were published in English between September 2021 and September 2024.
Of all news reports, 45% blamed poor driver behaviour as the main cause of road crashes, and victim-blaming is prevalent in news reports across all five countries.
Pedestrians account for one third of road deaths in the WHO African Region. Yet news reports typically frame pedestrian deaths as a result of individual failing, not systemic problems like missing footpaths, a lack of safe places to cross busy roads or a lack of public transport.
Road safety laws were mentioned in just 14% of all reports. The quality of infrastructure was mentioned in 11% and road safety policies were mentioned in just 7%.
Of all news articles, 65% framed crashes as isolated events, failing to offer context such as the number of previous fatalities in the area of a collision. Framing crashes as isolated events can prevent readers from connecting the dots between incidents and hide the true scale of the crisis.
Road crashes cost most countries around three to 5% of gross domestic product [GDP] yet just 4% of news reports covered the knock-on effects of road crashes on health services or the economic costs for victims, families and countries.
More than half of all news reports used the word "accident" instead of "crash" or "collision". The word "accident" obscures the fact that road deaths are preventable.
"Road deaths are preventable. People will always make mistakes on the roads but we can ensure our transport systems absorb errors in a way that significantly reduces deaths. This is why news reports must give the full picture and look into the systemic causes and solutions," says Dr Nhan Tran.
Research shows that simple editorial improvements to news reports can shift public awareness of road crashes as a preventable public health crisis, and can increase support for systemic solutions. Notably, the Associated Press [AP] encourages reporters to use the word "crash" and not "accident" when describing collisions, and a growing number of media organizations are following suit.
Towards a new narrative for global road safety
The report will feed into the upcoming Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech , Morocco. A special session at the conference will explore ways to shift the narrative. Speakers include:
- Dr Nhan Tran, Head of Safety and Mobility, WHO.
- Abdessadek Maafa, Director of Communications, National Road Safety Agency, Morocco.
- Dorcas Wangira, Health Correspondent, BBC Africa.
- Amandine Morhaim, Editor in Chief of Sports Documentaries, Canal+.
- Albert Asseraf, Director General of Communications, JCDecaux.
The report supports WHO's work in training journalists to advance road safety reporting . As part of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, WHO also offers resources , data and tools for newsrooms.
