The FIA has called on Governments across the world to back a campaign for a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’, which targets a 50 per cent reduction in road deaths globally by 2020.
At a high level campaign event in San Jose, Costa Rica today, the FIA and FIA Foundation joined senior ministers and Make Roads Safe campaign ambassadors to demand immediate and sustained action to achieve this goal.
Costa Rica President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Oscar Arias Sanchez, seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher and world-renowned actress Michelle Yeoh called on world leaders to focus their attention on road safety to halve fatalities by the end of the next decade.
• Road crashes are the leading global cause of death for young people aged 10-24.
• Every day, more than 3,000 people, including 500 children, are killed in road accidents.
• Every year, over one million are killed and at least 50 million injured.
• The number of people killed on the roads in developing countries is predicted to rise by 80 per cent over the next 20 years.
• By 2015 road deaths will be the leading cause of premature death for children aged over five in developing countries, unless action is taken now.
Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica, said:
“We need a global programme to combat this epidemic of road traffic injuries which kill on the same scale as Tuberculosis or Malaria. I am supporting the Make Roads Safe campaign and I call for a ‘Decade of Action’ which is essential if we are to save lives both in Costa Rica and around the world.”
Max Mosley, FIA President, said:
“This is a global problem that demands a global remedy. Only through the sustained action of governments across the world can we diminish the growing disease of death and injury on our roads. Added to the awful human loss, road crashes cost the developing world up to US$100 billion a year, money that could be better spent on healthcare and education.”
Make Roads Safe global Ambassador Michelle Yeoh said:
“We can and must put a stop to the loss of life on our roads. Road crashes are already the number one cause of death and injury for our children. Unless we act, this epidemic of road injury will get even worse as they grown up. This is why we need a worldwide Decade of Action for Road Safety.”
Michael Schumacher, who has also given his support to the Make Roads Safe campaign, said:
“If we don’t act now, millions will lose their lives on the world’s roads over the next decade. We need a global Decade of Action for Road Safety to replicate and build on Costa Rica’s own safety measures.”
The FIA will work with its global network of member clubs to lobby national governments to support the call for a Decade of Action. As part of the campaign, governments will be asked to commit to a 10-year, US$300 million Action Plan to improve road safety in developing countries and to ensure that 10 per cent of road infrastructure funding in those regions is dedicated to safer road design.
The Decade of Action initiative forms the latest stage of the FIA and FIA Foundation’s Make Roads Safe campaign. This began with the FIA’s ‘Declaration on Global Road Safety’, which was signed by all FIA Clubs at the 2006 FIA General Assembly in Barcelona and which laid out a broad agenda for future road safety policy from funding and development to campaigning and lobbying.
Recently, Make Roads Safe has proved successful in lobbying the United Nations to hold the first ever global governmental conference on road safety, which will be held in Moscow in November 2009.
Currently 1.3 million people are killed on the world’s roads each year, a toll set to increase to 2.4 million by 2030 according to a World Health Organisation study. The Make Roads Safe campaign is calling for the international community to commit to a ten year action plan with tough regional targets for injury reduction to prevent these terrible forecasts from being realised.
Paris, 15 January 2009
Campaign media links
Documents
Click here to download the Make Roads Safe declaration, adopted by FIA clubs at the FIA General Assembly in 2006. The Declaration sets out a comprehensive strategy to promote road safety worldwide.
Films
Watch Michael Palin and Michelle Yeoh discuss their experiences of road safety around the world and urge political leaders to support a Decade of Action for Road Safety.
For Windows Media Player version click here
For Quicktime version click here
Images
Click here for downloadable high-res images from the Make Roads Safe campaign around the world.
Sites
www.makeroadssafe.org
www.myspace.com/makeroadssafe
www.facebook.com (Group: Make Roads Safe)