John,

Cars and traffic are a daily fact of life for people and communities everywhere. But out of more than 190 countries worldwide, only 6 have laws that meet all the World Health Organization's best practices for road safety. Nearly 80 nations have no vehicle safety standards laws at all.

That has made daily life for billions of people more dangerous than it needs to be. Every year, traffic accidents injure more than 50 million people and claim upwards of a million lives. More than 90 percent of those fatalities are in low- and middle-income countries. And for young people between the ages of 5 and 29, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death globally.

The hopeful news is that we know what it takes to reduce those numbers.

Last week, Bloomberg Philanthropies recognized work in four countries demonstrating effective ideas to tackle a range of road safety challenges and save lives from traffic crashes. These inaugural recipients of the Excellence in Road Safety Awards -- coming from Argentina, Colombia, Tunisia and Viet Nam -- have developed and implemented plans that can be a model for communities the world over as they work to improve road safety and enhance mobility for their millions of citizens.

The winning solutions have proven effective at protecting students walking to school, gathering data on crashes to inform road safety interventions, making streets safer for bikers and pedestrians, and reducing fatalities and injuries from drunk driving.

Watch this video to learn how each solution is making roads safer:

Since 2007, Bloomberg Philanthropies has invested $500 million in global road safety, working with partners like the WHO to save an estimated 312,000 lives and prevent up to 11.5 million injuries. But there is still work to be done. When announcing the award recipients, Mike said, "Millions of road fatalities and injuries each year could be prevented with stronger laws, better infrastructure, and more efficient enforcement."

Traffic may be a stubborn fact of life for billions. But as our winners of the first ever Excellence in Road Safety Awards show, traffic accidents and their tragic costs don't have to be.

Thanks,

Bloomberg Philanthropies