David Ward, FIA Foundation Director General, Ambassador Al Hinai of Oman, Dr Catherine Le Galles-Camus, Assistant Director General of the WHO, Dr Etienne Krug, Director, WHO Injuries Prevention Department, Jose Capel Ferrer, Transport Director of the UNECE, Bernard Perisset, Chairman of the UNECE Working Party on Road Traffic Safety, and Richard Scurfield, Transport Director of the World Bank at the opening session of the meeting in Palais des Nations, Geneva
The United Nations has held its 2nd Road Safety Collaboration meeting to follow up the decisions of the last year’s UN General Assembly on March 16 and 17 in Geneva. The UN meeting chaired by Etienne Krug of the World Health Organisation (WHO) was attended by over 40 representatives of Member Governments, UN regional commissions, the World Bank, The European Commission and a wide range of stakeholders from industry, and NGOs, including the FIA Foundation.
The meeting adopted an action plan to highlight the four main risk factors identified by last year’s WHO and World Bank World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention. Measures to tackle these four subjects of non-use of safety belts, non-use of helmets, excessive speed and drink/driving will be developed in a series of ‘best practice’ manuals to be prepared by the WHO, the World Bank, the Global Road Safety Partnership, and the FIA Foundation. Guest of honour at the Geneva meeting was His Excellency Fuad Al Hinai, Ambassador from Oman to the UN. Ambassador Al Hinai explained the next steps in the UN General Assembly’s consideration of road safety issues. A Secretary General’s report on the UN Road Safety Collaboration will be submitted to the Assembly in September this year.
A guide to organisations active in road safety entitled UN Road Safety Collaboration: A Handbook of Partner Profiles, Version 1, published by the WHO, was launched at the meeting. Download guide.
For more information, visit the WHO website: www.who.int