KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Malaysian roads are the 17th deadliest in the world, a study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute has revealed.
Using data for 2008 from the World Health Organisation, the authors of the study found that road accidents caused 30 deaths for every 100,000 people in Malaysia’s population.
That meant that 6.0 per cent of all deaths in the country were caused by road accident fatalities.
Roads accidents in Thailand caused 44 deaths per 100,000 of people, making it the second most deadly country for road accidents.
Namibia topped the list with 45 deaths per 100,000 of the population.
In comparison, coronary heart disease made up 17 per cent of total deaths in Malaysia, making it the number one killer in the country.
The other two main killers in Malaysia were cancer, which made up 15 per cent of total deaths and stroke at 9 per cent.
Despite that, the study showed that Malaysia has among the lowest overall fatality rates with 494 deaths per 100,000 people, and was placed 170th among the 193 countries surveyed.
