At a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, members of the Commission, including former Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher, reviewed progress in tackling the global road death epidemic.

A progress report issued by the Commission outlines the next steps working towards an agenda for the 2009 Moscow Ministerial. A key part of the agenda will be a global 'Decade of Action for Road Safety' which will aim to cut by half the projected increase in road deaths by 2020. It would build on the existing casualty reduction targets for road safety adopted in the various world regions.

Commission Chairman Lord Robertson said: “Road deaths are a growing epidemic, requiring a rapidly escalated response. The United Nations has decided that this problem is serious enough to warrant a UN Conference bringing together governments from across the world.

“The Commission for Global Road Safety is calling on ministers, when they meet in Moscow next year, to agree an ambitious ten year vision for road safety, with the political and financial commitment to deliver action and save lives.”

Road fatalities are set to double over the next twenty years, overtaking Malaria and Tuberculosis as a leading cause of death, unless urgent action is taken now to improve road safety in rapidly motorizing countries. Already 1.3 million people are killed on the world's roads each year, a toll set to increase to 2.1 million by 2030 according to World Health Organization predictions.

Speaking at a press conference following the Commission's meeting, German Commission member Michael Schumacher, said: “Every thirty seconds someone is killed on the world's roads. We can act now to prevent this or we can wait a few years until someone is being killed every fifteen seconds.

“This is the choice, and I am sure about what I prefer. I look forward to continuing to work with the Commission for Global Road Safety to help ensure that the international community makes the right choice.”

He was joined by international film actress Michelle Yeoh, who is Global Ambassador for the Make Roads Safe campaign. She said: “Children and young people are most affected by this epidemic. I have met mothers trying to protect their children who would love for their voices to be heard by policymakers.

“They are fighting for basic human rights, the right to be safe on the roads. The Make Roads Safe campaign will be working hard to ensure that when governments meet in 2009 at the UN Conference in Moscow, they don't just talk, but they also listen and act.”

Following the Commission meeting, Lord Robertson also spoke at an international road safety congress in St Petersburg organised by the Russian government and the Confederation of Independent States. He urged world leaders to make a strong commitment to tackling road deaths when ministers meet at the 2009 Moscow Conference.

Lord Robertson thanked the Russian government for offering to host the first UN Conference on global road safety and said: “We must work together to ensure that the meeting is an historic success, a real breakthrough for international efforts to cooperate on improving road safety. We would like to see a sustained effort, between now and 2020, to work together, to invest and to share knowledge, so that we can master this man-made disaster and reclaim the roads for life…This, then, is the opportunity presented by the Moscow Conference”.

HRH Prince Michael of Kent, the Patron of the Commission for Global Road Safety, also spoke at the event, held in the historic Tavricheskiy Palace, and praised the Russian Federation for its leadership in global road safety. He presented a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award to Sergey Mironov, Speaker of the Russian Senate and Chairman of the CIS International Road Safety Congress, in recognition of the high political commitment shown by Russia in both its domestic and international response to road traffic injuries.