STOCKHOLM: Concerned over the high number of road deaths — over 1.35 million each year or almost 3,700 per day across the globe — even years after nations committed to halve them, top global road safety leaders gave a clarion call to treat road safety as seriously as global warming and a pandemic. They said every country needs safe roads, safe vehicles and good behaviour on the road.
Urging member countries to put their acts together to curb the fatalities and injuries in road crashes, director general of Swedish Transport Administration Roberto Maiorana said, “More importantly, road safety is now on the same level as global warming, equal rights and safe workplaces etc. And it has legitimate access to many processes and tools that could speed up the actions leading to a reduced global road toll.”
He was speaking at the Vision Zero conference in the Swedish capital, which was attended by representatives from more than 100 national governments, top functionaries from World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international organisations. The global meet on Vision Zero and the Global Meeting of the Network of Heads of National Road Safety Agencies are taking place to assess the ground covered since the target to reduce fatalities by 50% during the second Decade of Action for Road Safety was announced in 2020.
Sweden pioneered the Vision Zero with the goal that no one should be killed or seriously injured because of a road accident by passing the landmark legislation in 1997.
While Sweden has made remarkable progress by reducing road deaths to 227 in 2022, Swedish infrastructure and housing minister Andreas Carlson said, “We are not done yet. We need to work harder to save every life.”
Terming road crashes and deaths as a “silent pandemic”, Jean Todt UN special envoy for road safety seeking urgent action from all nations said that countries can learn from Sweden how to reduce road traffic deaths through creative thinking, new ideas, and steady application. He added that the UN itself is becoming more committed to lead by example.
Strongly pushing for collaborative effort to reduce road deaths, Todt said, “But the Covid-19 experience provided an example of how humanity can bond together to discover and apply the solutions when the emergency appears urgent enough to everyone. That example alone should show us that we are not doing enough for the pandemic on our roads — we need to better persuade people that it is just as urgent as Covid-19 in how it destroys lives and economies.”
Talking to reporters, the UN envoy said while huge investment came to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, there is little funding for road safety.
Etienne Krug, director of WHO’s department of social determinants of health said that Vision Zero is rooted in the belief that no death or serious injury is ever acceptable. “And from a public health perspective, that fits perfectly with the fundamental right to health that every human being must enjoy.”
Addressing the heads of national road safety lead agencies, Krug said, “We continue to pay an unacceptable toll for our mobility, with 1.3 million deaths and up to 50 million injuries on the world’s roads each year. We are one quarter of the way through the Decade of Action, and success in reducing deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030 is far from guaranteed.”
Earlier he said European countries have brought down deaths by 50% and that should be the noem as every country needs safe roads, safe vehicles and good behaviour on the road.
Urging member countries to put their acts together to curb the fatalities and injuries in road crashes, director general of Swedish Transport Administration Roberto Maiorana said, “More importantly, road safety is now on the same level as global warming, equal rights and safe workplaces etc. And it has legitimate access to many processes and tools that could speed up the actions leading to a reduced global road toll.”
He was speaking at the Vision Zero conference in the Swedish capital, which was attended by representatives from more than 100 national governments, top functionaries from World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international organisations. The global meet on Vision Zero and the Global Meeting of the Network of Heads of National Road Safety Agencies are taking place to assess the ground covered since the target to reduce fatalities by 50% during the second Decade of Action for Road Safety was announced in 2020.
Sweden pioneered the Vision Zero with the goal that no one should be killed or seriously injured because of a road accident by passing the landmark legislation in 1997.
While Sweden has made remarkable progress by reducing road deaths to 227 in 2022, Swedish infrastructure and housing minister Andreas Carlson said, “We are not done yet. We need to work harder to save every life.”
Terming road crashes and deaths as a “silent pandemic”, Jean Todt UN special envoy for road safety seeking urgent action from all nations said that countries can learn from Sweden how to reduce road traffic deaths through creative thinking, new ideas, and steady application. He added that the UN itself is becoming more committed to lead by example.
Strongly pushing for collaborative effort to reduce road deaths, Todt said, “But the Covid-19 experience provided an example of how humanity can bond together to discover and apply the solutions when the emergency appears urgent enough to everyone. That example alone should show us that we are not doing enough for the pandemic on our roads — we need to better persuade people that it is just as urgent as Covid-19 in how it destroys lives and economies.”
Talking to reporters, the UN envoy said while huge investment came to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, there is little funding for road safety.
Etienne Krug, director of WHO’s department of social determinants of health said that Vision Zero is rooted in the belief that no death or serious injury is ever acceptable. “And from a public health perspective, that fits perfectly with the fundamental right to health that every human being must enjoy.”
Addressing the heads of national road safety lead agencies, Krug said, “We continue to pay an unacceptable toll for our mobility, with 1.3 million deaths and up to 50 million injuries on the world’s roads each year. We are one quarter of the way through the Decade of Action, and success in reducing deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030 is far from guaranteed.”
Earlier he said European countries have brought down deaths by 50% and that should be the noem as every country needs safe roads, safe vehicles and good behaviour on the road.
