Make Roads Safe campaign ambassador Michelle Yeoh today (24) launched a $10 million scheme to help combat a road deaths epidemic which is escalating across developing countries.
The commitment, made at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York , aims to prevent 1 million road deaths and serious injuries per year over the next decade. The FIA Foundation, which runs the Make Roads Safe campaign, has committed the funds to the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) to help ensure that killer roads are no longer built in developing countries.
The campaign has called for a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’ which could save five million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries around the world. iRAP would be one initiative contributing to the Decade of Action by ensuring that key safety measures become an integral part of road infrastructure building.
Michelle Yeoh said: “Thousands of people are killed or injured every day in developing countries because essential safety measures are left out of road infrastructure projects. We must do more to protect all road users. It’s often just a simple case of putting a crossing point in to help children get to school or ensuring that cyclists and pedestrians are separated from busy traffic.”
Road deaths and injuries are predicted to increase over the next decade to almost 2 million a year by 2020 unless action is taken. They are forecast to be the number one cause of disability and premature death for children aged 5-14 in developing countries by 2015, according to World Health Organization projections.
Lord Robertson, chairman of the Make Roads Safe campaign said: “Road infrastructure is without doubt vital for economic development in low and middle income countries and essential for improving access to education and health care. However, these efforts are entirely undermined when that infrastructure fails to protect those using it. Through this important commitment iRAP can ensure that roads are made safer for all.”
The iRAP project is the first CGI Commitment on road safety and comes ahead of the first ever global Ministerial-level conference on road safety to be held in Moscow this November.
Notes for editors
- iRAP is a not for profit organisation which is dedicated to saving lives by promoting safer road design. Roads and express highways are primarily built for economic objectives and the needs of vulnerable road users, often poor communities bisected by new or upgraded roads, are left out of the equation. iRAP provides 'vaccines for roads', assessing the safety performance of road networks, making detailed technical recommendations to governments and providing cost/benefit analysis for fixing design flaws, including estimates of lives that could be saved and injuries that could be prevented. iRAP in Africa, Asia and Latin America to encourage implementation . Importantly, iRAP mentors local organisations and trains local assessors to build key safety measures. www.irap.org
- The FIA Foundation is an independent UK registered charity which manages and supports an international programme of activities promoting road safety, environmental protection and sustainable mobility, as well as funding specialist motor sport safety research. It runs the global Make Roads Safe campaign which is calling for a global Decade of Action for road safety. www.fiafoundation.org; www.makeroadssafe.org
- International actress Michelle Yeoh starred in movies including ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’; ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’; ‘Sunshine’ and the James Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. She has also filmed a documentary ‘Turning Point’ on the global road deaths epidemic, visit www.makeroadssafe.org
- Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI members have made more than 1,400 commitments valued at $46 billion, which have already improved the lives of 200 million people in 150 countries. The CGI’s Fifth Annual Meeting runs from September 22-25, 2009, in New York www.clintonglobalinitiative.org
Contact
Bella Dinh-Zarr, US Director FIA Foundation 001 202-701-5656
Avi Silverman, Make Roads Safe campaign 0044 7967229374