Seven of the world’s largest automotive and oil companies have together pledged funding of $10 million for road safety projects over the next five years.
Oil giant Shell, tyre manufacturer Michelin and car companies Ford, General Motors, Honda, Renault and Toyota have agreed to support a five year road safety strategy to be implemented by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), a road safety coalition whose members include the FIA Foundation. The initiative will focus on key road safety themes including seat belt use, pedestrian safety, training of road safety professionals in developing countries and supporting pilot projects.
The announcement has been welcomed by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, whose institution is one of the founding members of GRSP. Mr Wolfensohn commented: ‘Road safety is a very important development challenge; one that is often overlooked, and which disproportionately impacts the poor. We welcome the much stronger engagement of leading multinationals in this important initiative. It will hopefully encourage governments and others in the Partnership to also step forward and do more to address the problem’.
GRSP’s Chief Executive, David Silcock, said: We are delighted to work with these companies to help build the capacity of developing countries to reduce traffic fatalities. We have identified several candidate regions and will begin talking immediately with those governments to determine what initiatives make the most sense. We hope to be able to announce further specifics by the second quarter of 2005’.