The United Nations must take urgent steps to address the world’s growing road deaths crisis, warns IAM Motoring Trust in support of the Make Roads Safe campaign today (31 March).
In a key debate on global road safety, the UN General Assembly will today have a chance to tackle an epidemic which already ranks with HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis as a worldwide killer.
The IAM Trust is backing the global Make Roads Safe campaign which is handing in a petition of 1 million signatures to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Motoring clubs and road safety organisations around the world have been gathering signatures in support of the campaign ahead of the UN debate.
Road deaths are now the number one killer of young people aged 10-24 worldwide. Overall, each year more than1.2 million people are killed and 50 million injured. The latest forecasts show that unless action is taken, more than twenty million lives could be lost from 2000-2015, with a doubling of the annual death rate by 2030.
The UN General Assembly will debate a new Resolution which is hoped to focus international efforts on the problem.
Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, which first proposed a global Ministerial conference, says, “Today’s debate can mark the moment when the world community looks out at the suffering, the grief, and the cost of road injuries and decides to begin to end it. This is in our power to do. Collectively we have the tools, we have the knowledge, and we have the means. We must act.”
Max Mosley FIA President says, “Automobile Clubs around the world have played an instrumental role in supporting the Make Roads Safe campaign. The fact that 1 million signatures are being handed in to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon shows the huge public concern over the growing problem of road deaths. However, our work is by no means done and the FIA joins the call for sustained global action.”
Neil Grieg, IAM Trust Director, says, “The following stark facts make it clear to all member governments and the UN that urgent, adequately funded initiatives to tackle road deaths are a global priority.”
Each year 1.2 million people die and as many as 50 million are injured or permanently disabled on roads, costing between 1 and 3 per cent of the world’s GDP.
As a global killer, road deaths rank with Malaria and TB and, by 2020, the World Health Organisation expects road deaths to rise beyond 8 million annually, and to overtake AIDS as the leading cause of unnatural death
Worldwide, a child aged under 15 is killed or seriously injured every minute
Although road deaths in high-income countries are expected to fall between 2000 and 2020, they are expected to increase by more than 80 per cent in the rest of the world.
- At least ninety per cent of road deaths and injuries occur in middle and low income countries. However the issue is not widely recognised as a development concern and there is no serious high level international action to improve road safety
- In 2007, road crashes were estimated to cost up to US$100 billion a year to middle and low income countries, or typically between 1-3 per cent of GDP
- The Make Roads Safe campaign argues that the international community should, as a minimum, fund a 10-year, $300 million, action plan to increase road safety capacity in middle and low income countries
- Another proposal is that 10 per cent of road infrastructure budgets funded by international donors should be earmarked for safety
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IAM Motoring Trust Media Line – 0208 996 9777
Notes to Editors:
1.The United Nations General Assembly session on the Global Road Safety crisis will take place at UN Headquarters New York at 10am, 31 March.
2.Press briefing on global road safety, 1.15 pm UN Headquarters.
3.On the agenda for the UN General Assembly is a proposal for the first ever global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, a key demand of the Make Roads Safe campaign.
4.In 2007, the IAM Motoring Trust produced Children and Road Safety – A Guide for Parents to support UN Global Road Safety Week. The report identifies where and when children in five distinct age groups are at most risk on the road, and offers advice on what parents can do to minimise the risk.
5.The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is dedicated to saving lives in developing countries by making roads safer. iRAP targets high-risk roads where large numbers are killed and seriously injured, and inspects them to identify where affordable programmes of safety engineering‚ from pedestrian crossings to safety fences‚ could reduce large numbers of deaths and serious injuries.
The IAM Motoring Trust is the campaigning and policy arm of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists
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Call for UN action as up to 20m deaths and 200m injuries are predicted on world's roads by 2015
