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"My Driving Ambition": Schumacher's comment piece in the Guardian >
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Moby, Lewis Hamilton and Tony Blair back call for UN conference on road safety
Road deaths are becoming the new disease of the global young and poor the Make Roads Safe campaign warned today at the start of the first ever UN Global Road Safety Week.
Globally road crashes are now the leading cause of death for young people aged 10-25, and over a thousand young people are killed on the roads every day according to new figures from the World Health Organisation.
The warning came as Michael Schumacher launched the Make Roads Safe campaign’s global petition which is calling for a UN conference on global road safety, a demand endorsed in a video statement by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Rock star Moby and new racing star Lewis Hamilton added their support for the Make Roads Safe petition.
Michael Schumacher said:
“A thousand young people under the age of 25 die every day on the roads. Road crashes kill on the scale of Malaria or Tuberculosis, yet the international community has not woken up to this horrific waste of life. That is why I strongly support the Make Roads Safe campaign and the proposal that the United Nations organise a first ever UN ministerial conference to tackle this preventable loss of life”.
In a video statement recorded for UN Global Road Safety Week, Prime Minister Tony Blair said:
“Every minute of every day a child is killed or seriously injured on the world’s roads. Road crashes are the second leading cause of death for young men after HIV/AIDS, and in some African countries more than 70% of those killed on the roads are young breadwinners. It is becoming clear that road injury has a serious impact on the wider development goals we are all trying to achieve. So I commend the proposal that the UN should organise a global Ministerial meeting on road safety”.
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US rock star Moby added his support to the Make Roads Safe campaign, saying:
“It is often the poorest children who are the most vulnerable. Over 500 children are being killed in road accidents every day. The world needs to act and act fast. That is why I support the Make Roads Safe campaign and its petition to the United Nations.'
New motor racing star Lewis Hamilton commented:
'I only recently just found out that there are 1.2 million deaths a year and I think that's shocking. So I think people need to sit back and really think about how many people are dying on the roads and what we can do about improving that”.
Speaking at a Rally for Safer Roads in London, the Chairman of the Make Roads Safe campaign, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, said:
“We are today officially launching a global petition to the United Nations, calling on the General Assembly to endorse a UN ministerial conference. I ask all of you to sign the petition, if you haven’t already, and to promote this campaign and the petition. We have compelling arguments on our side and there are millions of people who need us to succeed”.