On the eve of the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, to be held on 19 and 20 November, in Moscow, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is calling for urgent and global action to significantly decrease deaths and injuries in road crashes.
“The statistics are horrendous,” notes IFRC Secretary general Bekele Geleta. “Every year, across the world, nearly 1.3 million people lose their lives in road crashes – that’s more than 3,000 a day, and up to 50 million more are injured. (*) These deaths and injuries are preventable, so we have to do more, now and together.”
The IFRC will present a formal call to action at the Moscow conference in an advocacy document which explains the scale of the rapidly escalating road safety crisis, reviews the response of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and details simple, cost-effective and proven preventive measures which can reduce the mortality and injury rate on the roads.
“Road crashes have devastating social and economic consequences on families. We can work together to save millions of lives, especially young lives. Worldwide, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29, and the second cause of death for those aged 5 to 14, (*) and that is unacceptable,” explains Bekele Geleta. “We welcome the high-level conference in Moscow and are confident governments will put road safety at the top of their political agenda.”
The IFRC will advocate to persuade governments to pass and enforce traffic laws to reduce speeding, to fix strict limits on drinking and driving and to make the use of seat belts and helmets mandatory. Other recommendations include mandatory first aid training for drivers, road safety classes for young people and national campaigns to change road users’ behaviour.
“We have mobilized global resources to fight the spread of major pandemics such as AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, which also kill more than one million people a year,” adds the IFRC secretary general. “There is no reason we cannot do the same for road crashes, especially since we know what measures can be taken.”
More than one third of the IFRC’s 186 member Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are actively involved in road safety programmes. Many have integrated road safety in their first aid programmes. Their volunteers and staff, working at the heart of communities, implement public information campaigns on safe behaviour, provide first aid courses for professional drivers and the general public and promote road safety in schools.
In line with the recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank in 2004, the IFRC has made safer roads a priority for action over the next ten years. As part of its commitment, it hosts the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) which was created in 1999 to address road safety issues, principally in low- and middle-income countries, where more than 90% of road deaths occur.
Call for action
(*) Source: Global Status report on Road Safety, WHO, 2009