In 2011, it was estimated that more than 75,000 people died in road crashes in ASEAN countries and many more sustained long term injuries. Improving road safety outcomes in ASEAN is not only important for the welfare and economic benefit of the populations of these countries, but given the proportion of the world’s population that lives in ASEAN, it will strongly influence whether the aims of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Sustainable Development Goals are reached.

Each one of the ASEAN countries has reached different levels of maturity in its response to road trauma. The Decade of Action for Road Safety has proposed 5 pillars of road safety which provide a useful framework for road safety strategies at the global, regional and national levels: road safety management, safer road and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users and post-crash response. There has also been a realisation that, within this overall framework, there are particular actions that are best suited to implementation at the global, regional and national levels. It is proposed that the key Strategic Directions for the ASEAN Regional Road Safety Strategy should focus on those aspects which are most relevant at the regional level and where a regional approach will support and facilitate actions taken by individual countries.