One every 30 seconds

Each year 1.2 million people are killed in road traffic crashes worldwide, most of them in developing countries. By 2020 the total could have doubled. Worst affected are children, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Road accidents are the number one killer of 10- to 25-year-olds.Yet much of this loss of life is preventable. In the industrialised countries, road casualties have been falling for three decades. We are becoming ever more sophisticated in designing road safety systems. We expect crumple zones, air bags and electronic stability control. We expect road users to wear seat belts or helmets and to avoid excessive speed and drink driving.

Yet on the streets of south-east Asia, South America and Africa, road crashes kill on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis. China and India each lose at least 100,000 people a year to road crashes. In Africa, the World Health Organisation estimates that 200,000 die each year. The cost of road injury to developing countries is estimated at up to $100bn a year - equivalent to all overseas aid from donor governments.

At last, the United Nations has begun to address the issue, and today is the start of the first UN global road safety week. The World Bank has established a global road safety facility and, together with the WHO, is working to reduce road traffic injuries. But the high-level political commitment and financial resources to give global road safety the attention it deserves are missing.

That is why I am delighted to be a member of the independent Commission for Global Road Safety, chaired by Lord Robertson. Our report, Make Roads Safe, recommends action to cut injuries in developing countries, including a $300m 10-year programme to develop road safety skills, a 10% minimum spend on safety in aid-funded road projects, and a UN ministerial conference.

Prompted by the Make Poverty History campaign, the G8 leaders of the major industrialised countries have committed themselves to doubling aid and improving Africa's road infrastructure. Fewer than 20% of roads in sub-Saharan Africa are paved, and the Commission for Africa recommended that at least 90,000 miles of new roads are needed. But roads built to transport goods as fast as possible, designed to the cheapest specification without safety in mind, will make the world's most dangerous road network worse. The roads built to make poverty history must be safe.

African transport ministers have adopted a target of halving the continent's road traffic fatalities by 2015. To support this goal, road safety organisations have set up the Make Roads Safe campaign, with a petition calling on the UN to give road safety the profile and priority it deserves. Tony Blair has already given his strong support.

There are reasons to be optimistic. In the industrialised nations, we have demonstrated over 30 years that we can reduce road deaths, even as traffic levels grow. In my racing career, I survived some very high-speed impacts. I am still alive because the sport's governing body designed a system where safety is the prime consideration. The car, the track and the rules are geared towards ensuring that crashes will not be fatal. This "vision zero" approach increasingly guides the policies of those countries with the most effective road safety performance.

In the end, it comes down to how many road fatalities we are prepared to accept. Today, we tolerate one every 30 seconds. The better alternative is to take action to make roads safe.

Michael Schumacher, a member of the Commission for Global Road Safety and a former F1 driver who has been seven-time world champion.