The Make Roads Safe campaign’s proposal for a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’ has been presented at the UN Road Safety Collaboration, meeting in Geneva.
The UN Collaboration meeting, hosted at the headquarters of the World Health Organization, discussed the forthcoming UN Ministerial Conference on road safety. General Victor Kiryanov, Head of Road Safety for the Russian Federation, briefed participants on the preparations for the first global conference on road safety, which will be held in Moscow in November 2009. FIA Foundation Director General David Ward presented the Make Roads Safe campaign’s Call for a Decade of Action for Road Safety, and urged organisations represented at the meeting to support the campaign in the run-up to the Moscow Conference.
The Make Roads Safe campaign is proposing that the UN Ministerial should recommend a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety between 2010-2020 with the aim of reducing the projected increase in global road deaths by 50% by 2020. The proposal is modelled on the current UN Decade to Roll Back Malaria. Road crashes and Malaria kill a similar number of people each year, yet road injuries are seriously neglected by comparison, with minimal intervention by the international community.
The UN Road Safety Collaboration, convened by WHO and the UN regional commissions, brings together agencies, governments and NGOs to promote coordinated global and regional action for road safety.