MEXICO CITY, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Road traffic accidents in Mexico resulted in losses of 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the Center for Experimentation and Road Safety (CESVI) said Monday.
Globally, the cost of traffic accidents in 2017 was 518 billion dollars, said Manuel Guzman, director of CESVI, an organization dedicated to the investigation and prevention of traffic accidents.
Last year, Mexico saw 2.4 million traffic accidents, which caused 16,185 deaths and 108,789 injuries, according to CESVI statistics.
"It is up to each and every citizen to understand road safety; it is not solely the job of public works or companies," Guzman said during a press conference.
The use of cell phones by drivers has become the number one cause of deaths in traffic accidents in Mexico, reaching 60 percent, which surpassed drunk driving and speeding, according to CESVI.
Answering a call while driving equals to five seconds of not having your eyes on the road, Guzman said, and it increases to ten seconds if a driver takes a selfie.
Among the proposals to increase road safety is the creation of the National Agency for Road Safety to encourage the sale of safer vehicles and to develop safer infrastructure, CESVI said.
