UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has urged “real action on every highway and every street in every community” to save millions of lives during the Decade of Action for Road Safety.
Mr Ban’s comments came as he was presented with a yellow road safety Tag by Ambassador H.E. Fuad Al Hinai, the ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman to the UN, a member of the Commission for Global Road Safety and the instigator of several groundbreaking UN resolutions on global road traffic injuries since 2003. “All of us can play a part in increasing safety and promoting sustainable transport,” Mr. Ban told Mr. Al-Hinai, lending his support to the forthcoming Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) to be launched on 11 May 2011. “Millions of lives can be saved if we work together for real action on every highway and every street in every community.”
The UN Secretary General noted that every day, almost 3,500 people lose their lives on the world’s roads, 85 per cent of them in low- and middle-income countries, making road safety a growing public health crisis as well as a hindrance to economic and social development.
To help raise global awareness of the forthcoming UN Decade of Action, Mr. Ban was photographed wearing the official symbol of the Decade, the yellow road safety tag bearing the slogan “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.” For more information about the Tag see www.decadeofaction.org.
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