Max Mosley, FIA Foundation trustee and President of the FIA joined Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, in Moscow on June 22nd to promote road safety and the Make Roads Safe agenda to the Russian Government.
Mr Mosley and Lord Robertson met Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov to argue for road safety to be included in the G8’s deliberations on Africa’s infrastructure development progress, when the Russian Federation hosts the G8 summit at St Petersburg in July. Russia has played an important and collaborative role in working for global road safety, supporting recent initiatives taken by the United Nations, the WHO and the World Bank, and chairing a key road safety committee at the UN in Geneva. In January 2006, the Russian Government took the initiative to provide an update to the UN on its efforts in response to the WHO/World Bank World report on road traffic injury prevention and UN resolutions on global road safety (see attached report below)
Both Max Mosley and Lord Robertson also spoke at the annual meeting of the Global Road Safety Partnership in Moscow City Hall, alongside General Victor Kiryanov, Head of Russia’s Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate, and the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov. Max Mosley asked Russian policymakers to imagine the public reaction if a terrorist attack killed 100 people and injured another 800 every day. "That's exactly what's happening on the roads" in car accidents across Russia, he pointed out.
President Vladimir Putin has taken a personal interest in reducing road traffic injuries within the Russian Federation. Indeed, at a meeting of the State Council Presidium in November 2005, President Putin made clear the huge human and economic cost of the 35,000 road deaths suffered in Russia each year, which cost more than 2% of Russia’s GDP (see attached speech below).
President Putin has established a Governmental Commission on Road Traffic Safety, tasked with identifying priorities and developing a strategy for injury reduction. The law relating to traffic violations has been strengthened and pedestrian safety and the safety of children as they are transported to and from school have been identified as priorities. The President himself has pointed to long term investment in the construction and modernisation of highways as crucial for both safety and the economy, citing predictions that by 2020 the load on Russia’s road network will be ten times higher than its carrying capacity.
Download Report to the UN on road safety in Russia >
Download Speech on road safety by President Vladimir Putin >