Road traffic fatalities cost global economy $US500 billion a year

Government ministers and traffic safety campaigners from around the world are meeting in Moscow in a bid to reduce the global annual road toll.

It is estimated 1.3 million people die on the world's roads each year.

So far this year there have been 168,000 traffic accidents in Russia alone, killing 21,300 people and injuring 212,500.

The meeting has been billed as the first global ministerial summit on road safety, prompted by the enormous impact crashes have on lives and economies around the world.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev says road crashes drain the global economy of $US500 billion ($AU540 billion) a year.

As well as sharing information, summit participants are expected to sign a declaration calling for a decade of action for road safety.

Australia's Federal Department of Transport delegate Joe Motha says the declaration could help focus efforts and coordinate know-how to tackle the problem.

"It's not an issue that's a knowledge issue, it's more an issue of implementing what's already known," he said.

Campaigners from the Commission for Global Road Safety estimate a decade of action could save five million lives.

SOURCE: www.abc.net.au by Moscow Correspondent Scott Bevan