The Commission was established by the FIA Foundation to examine the level of response by the international community to global road traffic injuries. Road crashes kill at least 1.2 million people every year, and injure another 50 million, a health burden similar to Malaria and TB.

The Commission’s Report will argue that road safety in low and middle income countries should be seen as a key sustainable development issue, and it will propose an Action Plan, with substantial political and financial commitment, to make roads safe.

Following the London launch, Make Roads Safe will be presented by Lord Robertson at a high level meeting in Moscow later in June. The annual meeting of the Global Road Safety Partnership, hosted in the Russian capital by the Russian Automobile Federation, will include a special session to hear the conclusions of the Commission for Global Road Safety. The Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, which also hosts the Group of Eight (G8) summit this year, and the Mayor of Moscow are expected to attend.

In advance of the publication of the Make Roads Safe report, Lord Robertson commented: “The G8 has been focusing on a whole series of areas where poverty and deprivation cause misery and death. And this is an area that has not, up till now, received sufficient attention. This is the time to focus on this particular carnage and we've produced a report that we think gives the evidence and the proposals that will help to deal with them.”