British motorists want the government to set aside part of its overseas aid budget for improving road safety in developing countries, according to a survey by the AA on behalf of the Make Roads Safe campaign.

The Department for International Development (DfID) contributes to a $4 billion annual road building programme in developing countries but spends less than 1% on safety, contrary to international guidelines.

A poll of more than 15,000 drivers, finds that 75% support calls for DfID to allocate more of its overseas aid to road safety. They agreed that at least 10% of DfID’s road building budgets should be spent on basic measures such as pedestrian crossings, pavements and bridges.

Developing countries are facing huge increases in road deaths at the same time as new killer roads are being built through aid and donor investment. Road crashes are already the number one killer of young people, but the situation is getting worse in developing countries. While developed countries have made progress in tackling casualty rates, developing nations are facing an 80% increase in road deaths by 2020.

Around the world over 1 million people have signed up to support the Make Roads Safe campaign’s calls for global action to combat the road safety crisis. This year, the United Nations resolved to confront an epidemic which claims the lives of 3,000 people per day and injures hundreds of thousands more and will hold a Ministerial level summit on the issue in 2009.

David Ward, Make Roads Safe campaign director said: “It’s becoming clear that people don’t want to see taxpayers’ money spent building killer roads across Africa and Asia. There has been huge public demand for global action on road safety to stem the shocking increase in road deaths across developing countries. We would start to tackle the crisis if we spent just 10% of our road development budgets on simple safety measures. It’s time for our politicians to listen to the public and act.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• From 2000-2015, the period in which the international community has been working towards the Millennium Development Goals, at least 20 million people will have been killed and more than 200 million seriously injured.
• At least ninety per cent of these deaths and injuries will have occurred in middle and low income countries. Yet road traffic injuries are not widely recognised as a development issue.
• The UK spends over £48 million each year on transport infrastructure projects in developing countries, allocating between 0.3% and 0.7% of its budget to road safety.
• The survey results are from the AA Populus Panel which received 15,306 responses from AA members in summer 2008
• Make Roads Safe is calling for a global effort to tackle the worldwide road deaths epidemic. For further information visit www.makeroadssafe.org

Contact: Avi Silverman Make Roads Safe 0044 7967229374