African roads remain among the most dangerous in the world, a new white paper has revealed. Commissioned by the International SOS Foundation and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), the paper found that security threats were an emerging and growing risk on the roads. Along with hijacking, robbery and kidnapping were serious issues in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. Around the world more than 1.35 million people are killed annually in road crashes. A staggering 40% of all road deaths are work related. Another 20 to 50 million people are injured each year. “Road crashes today account for a substantial number of deaths and functionally limiting injuries. When we take into account that this could happen to any employee travelling, we see the potential it has for disruption of a company as well as the lives of those involved and the people close to them, professionally and personally,” said Laurent Taymans, regional medical director at International SOS. “Add to this the emerging risks of the shared economy and we have a powerful cocktail where risk can be unmitigated and much more disruptive for business.” According to David Cliff, CEO of the GRSP, companies with employees on the road need to make sure their employees are aware of the changing risks. “By paying specific attention to risks while travelling, we can reduce the number of people being killed and injured on the world’s roads.” He said poor road infrastructure, poor legislation and poor road safety enforcement all increased the likelihood of a serious collision occurring.