General Victor Kiryanov, Head of the Russian Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate attended the London launch of the Make Roads Safe report. Together with Russia’s Ambassador to the UK, Mr Yury Fedotov, General Kiryanov met with Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety and discussed the importance of road safety to the Russian Federation and the possibility of the matter being discussed at the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.
Over 35,000 people are killed on the road in Russia each year and the number of crashes is increasing by over 10%. In response President Putin has taken a personal interest in reducing the country’s road injuries. Last year the President warned that, “the country, economy and Russian families lose hundreds of billions of roubles” as a result of crashes costing more than 2% of the country’s GDP. New laws have been introduced relating to traffic violations and an Intergovernmental Council on Road Safety has been established.
In June Lord Robertson will be visiting Moscow to present Make Roads Safe, the Report of the Commission for Global Road Safety. The Moscow launch will coincide with the annual meeting of the Global Road Safety Partnership and will be attended by road safety experts from around the world. Participants from the Russian Government will include Mr Zukov, the Vice-Premier of the Russain Federation, Mr Luzhkov the Major of Moscow, and General Kyrianov.
The Meeting will also feature a presentation by Tony Bliss, the lead road safety specialist at the World Bank. The Bank, together with the WHO and European Conference of Minister’s of Transport recently published a major review of Russia’s road safety policies. Undertaken at Russia’s request, the report makes recommends continued high level political engagement in a multi-sector response to the country’s major road safety challenge.
For more information about the GRSP meeting in Moscow click here
For the ECMT/World Bank/WHO Russia Review click here