Road injuries are now the biggest killer of children and young adults worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The organisation published figures that also reveal Africa has the worst rate of road traffic deaths in the world.

Its report says many African and South American countries still do not have sufficient speed limit laws.

But it also highlights that global road death rates relative to the size of the world’s population are stabilising.

Car accidents are now the leading global cause of death amongst children and young adults aged five to 29 years old, the report says.

It contends that says more people die from road-related injuries than from HIV/Aids, tuberculosis or diarrhoeal diseases.

“These deaths are an unacceptable price to pay for mobility,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general.

“There is no excuse for inaction. This is a problem with proven solutions.”

• 

‘No limits’

The WHO report says that at 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people, Africa’s road fatality rate is nearly three times that of Europe, which has the lowest globally.

It says nearly half of the 54 countries in Africa have no speed laws or speed limits in place.

Botswana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon have all seen death rates increase. Egypt, Angola, Burkina Faso and Burudi are among those that have seen a reduction.

Africa also has the highest rate of pedestrian and cyclist mortality.

Rises – and falls

According to the latest data, about 1.35 million people were killed in car accidents around the world in 2016, up slightly from previous years.

The risk of road deaths is said to be three times higher in low-income countries.

South-East Asia trails Africa as the second-most dangerous region, followed by the eastern Mediterranean.

But despite an increase in the number of deaths, the WHO says the global death rate from road accidents has stabilised in recent years.

The WHO attributes this to increased safety efforts in middle- and high-income countries. These include the development of safer infrastructure like cycling lanes, and “better” legislation on speeding, seat belts and vehicle standards.

Europe, the Americas and the Western Pacific have all seen a drop in road traffic death rates.

A big search and rescue operation is continuing in Japan for five missing US Marines after two aircraft with seven crew collided and crashed into the sea.

One Marine was rescued and was “in fair condition”, while another one “has been declared deceased”, Marines officials said in a statement.

The planes involved were a KC-130 and an F/A-18 based at Iwakuni near Hiroshima, south-western Japan.

US media say they crashed during a mid-air refuelling exercise.

The Marine Corps has not officially confirmed this, describing the incident as a “mishap”.

How is the rescue going?

Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Japanese aircraft and three vessels were taking part in the rescue operation.

The US 7th Fleet is supporting the operation, with navy aircraft being deployed.

• 

A Marines statement said: “We are thankful for the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force’s efforts as they immediately responded in the search and rescue operation.”

The Marines Corps tweeted that the incident occurred at about 02:00 local time on Thursday (17:00 GMT Wednesday).

The first Marine was rescued about four hours later, Japanese officials said, while the second was found 10 hours after the collision.

They said one of them was from the fighter jet.

There were five personnel on the C-130 and two on the F-18.

Japan said the search operation would continue overnight, Japan’s NHK World reports.

It quoted the head of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces, Katsutoshi Kawano, as saying that search teams had spotted debris floating in the sea.

How did the events unfold?

A Facebook posting by the III Marine Expeditionary Force said the incident took place 200 miles (320km) off the coast.

The US planes had taken off from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and “were conducting regularly scheduled training when the mishap occurred”.

• 

The BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says that air-to-air refuelling is a difficult and potentially dangerous flight operation, especially when done at night.

He says it is not clear what the weather conditions were like but overnight there was widespread cloud and rain across the Japanese archipelago.

The KC-130 is an extended-range tanker version of the C-130 and is used for mid-air refuelling.

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a fighter and attack aircraft and can carry a wide range of missiles and bombs.

The US has more than 50,000 troops stationed in Japan, more than 18,000 of them in the US Marine Corps.

The US has had problems with reliability of its aircraft in Japan. In November an F/A-18 Hornet crashed into the sea south of Okinawa. The two pilots ejected and were rescued.

Last December, part of a US helicopter crashed on to a school in Okinawa, renewing tensions with the local population.

Over the past years, a number of accidents and crimes have led to growing local opposition to the US base there.

•