Call for a Decade of Action for Road Safety 2010-2020

Presentation by David WardDirector General of the FIA FoundationUN Road Safety Collaboration, Geneva, November 17th 2008

World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention

Published by the WHO & World Bank in 2004 thereport warns that 1.2 million deaths and 50 millioninjuries occur annually on the road, and will morethan double by 2020. The report also...

• Shows that low and middle income countries account formore than 80% of global deaths from road traffic crashes.

• Identifies key injury risk factors (non use of seat belts, helmets,excessive speed, drink driving, and poor road infrastructure);

• Calls for greater international effort to reverse trend of rising RTIs;

• Recommends national prevention strategies based on a ‘lead agency’responsible for developing a multi-sectoral ‘safe systems’ approach.

The ‘Safety Systems’ Approach

Three components in a dynamicsystem:

• The road user

• The motor vehicle

• The road infrastructure

Rather than ‘blaming the victim’ for causing crashes, the risk of human erroris anticipated and ‘tolerated’ by a ‘forgiving’ system that has been designed toensure that the consequences of human error are non fatal as far as possible.

The design challenge is to manage loss of control of kinetic energy withintolerances survivable by the human body.

Rank Deaths Cause Proportion of total (%)

1 Ischaemic heart disease 12.6

2 Cerebrovascular disease 9.7

3 Lower respiratory infections 6.9

4 HIV/AIDS 4.8

5 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 4.8

6 Perinatal conditions 4.3

7 Diarrhoeal diseases 3.3

8 Tuberculosis 2.7

9 Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers 2.2

10 Road traffic injuries 2.1

11 Diabetes mellitus 1.7

12 Malaria 1.6

Twelve Leading Causes of Mortality, 2002

International Action on Malaria

• Abuja Action Plan 2000 • UN Decade to Roll Back Malaria 2001-2010

• Global Fund launched by G8 and US $2.8 billion funding approved to date.

• UN Special Envoy for Malaria

DALYS in Developing Countries (Children Age 5-14)

Make Roads Safe Report

Key Recommendations:

• A $300 million, 10 year Action Plan to promote multi-sector national road safetycapacity building in low and middle incomecountries should be funded by donor governments and private sourcesand managed by the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility;

• At a minimum 10% of all road infrastructure projects should be committedto road safety design, rating and assessment and community wide

initiatives;

• A Ministerial Conference on Global Road Safety should be held in 2008 toreview implementation of the World Report recommendations;

Global Advocacy Effort

Copies of the Make Roads Safe report and follow updialogue and meetings have targeted the following:

• Leaders of the G8 major industrialised nations• Multilateral Lending Banks• Bilateral donors• Regional intergovernmental bodies (APEC, EU etc)• UN agencies and regional commissions• Transport Ministers• Road Safety and development NGOs etc.

To support these efforts the Commission has preparedsummary reports, presentations and film materials.

Russian Federation Offers to Host UNMinisterial

In 2006 Lord Robertson visited Moscow to attend theAGM of the Global Road Safety Partnership and meetwith Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov.

Following further discussions with General ViktorKyrianov and HE Ambassador Yuri Fedotov inSeptember 2007 the Russian Federation offers tohost the proposed UN Ministerial in Moscow inNovember 2009.

Launch of Global Petition

The Make Roads Safe campaign is launched to obtainover 1 million signatures to be presented to theUN Secretary General in 2008. The petition campaign is launched by Michael Schumacher during the first UN Global Road Safety Week in April 2007.

Campaign events are held in London, Geneva, Berlin, CapeTown, Paris, St Petersburg, Kampala, and New York.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is joined by President Oscar Arias, and former President Jimmy Carter as three Nobel prizewinners backing the campaign. Other supporters include the former Irish President Mary Robinson, Tony Blair, musicians,Sports stars and the film actress Michelle Yeoh.

Petition Target Reached

The target to reach one million signaturesis reached with major contributions fromClubs especially Austria, Costa Rica, Croatia,Egypt, Italy, India, Japan, Serbia, Jamaicaand the Philippines.

More than 140 organisations worldwidehave supported the campaign.

In March Lord Robertson presents the UNSecretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, withthe petition.

General Assembly Approves UN Ministerial

In March the UN General Assembly debates roadsafety and Lord Robertson, Ambassador Al Hinai, Karla Gonzalez, and General Kyrianov all contribute.

Resolution 62/244 drafted by the Sultanate of Omanis unanimously approved which welcomes the offerby the Russian Federation to host the “first high level(ministerial) conference on road safety”.

An open letter from Archbishop Tutu, President Oscar Arias, Jimmy Carter and others is published and a postdebate briefing held including the campaign’s globalAmbassador Michelle Yeoh.

London Road Infrastructure SafetyConference at the EBRD

In July the Commission co-hosted with the EBRD amajor conference on road infrastructure safety. The meeting brought together the major lending banks, UN regional commissions etc. to discuss the potentialof road design to contribute to injury prevention.

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility also hosteda meeting of the development banks to explore the scope of harmonizing their approach to the design andsafety assessment of road projects that they finance.

IRAP also launched their ‘Vaccines for Roads’ report.

iRAP – Vaccines for Roads

iRAP pilot projects in four countriesshow positive cost benefit ratios fromImplementation of proposed countermeasures.

OECD – International Transport Forum

‘Towards Zero – Ambitious Road Safety Targets & the Safe System Approach

Key Recommendations:

• Adopt a highly ambitious vision for road safety• Set interim targets to move systematically towards the vision• Develop a safe system approach• Exploit proven interventions for early gains• Conduct data collection and analysis• Strengthen the road safety management system• Accelerate knowledge transfer• Invest in road safety• Foster commitment at highest levels of government

St Petersburg September 2008

Meeting of the Commission for GlobalRoad Safety

Key Objectives:

• Review the Commission’s original recommendations

• Prepare an update to the original Make Roads Safe report

• Provide a renewed set of recommendations for consideration by the forthcoming UN Ministerial in Moscow in November 2009

First Report - Impact Assessment

Recommendation One – Action Plan

• Rating: 20%

Recommendation Two – 10% Road SafetyInvestment in Road Projects

• Rating: 60%

Recommendation Three – UN Ministerial

• Rating 100%

Agenda for Moscow

Make 2010-2020 A Decade of Action for Road Safety

• Support an action plan of $300 million to invest in capacity building in road injury prevention...

• Invest in safer roads by committing at least 10% of project finance to safe road assessment and design.

• Agree a global target to reduce road fatalities by 50% from their forecast

level for 2020.

Next Steps

• Launch of follow up Make Roads Safe report at a major Conference in Rome on 5th May 2009 linked to the Italian Presidency of the G8

• Launch also in Rome the Make Roads Safe documentary film with Michelle Yeoh which features visits to Asia, Africa and Latin America and will highlight the key messages of the Commission’s reports.

• Focus the Make Roads Safe campaign on the theme of a decade of

action to achieve a 50% reduction in forecast fatalities by 2020.

Thank You !