(l-r) Costa Rican Transport Minister Karla Gonzalez, Lord Robertson, German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, and Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher has urged the German Government to ensure that the G8 works to improve road safety in developing countries at a Make Roads Safe campaign launch in Berlin.
Schumacher and Lord Robertson, chairman of the Make Roads Safe campaign, shared a platform with German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee at the campaign launch. They were joined by Costa Rican Transport Minister Karla Gonzalez, who made a powerful speech calling for political commitment to road safety.
The meeting, held just a few weeks before Germany hosts the G8 summit, was organised by the German automobile association, ADAC.
Schumacher made a plea for urgent action on road safety, an issue which he said needs to be taken seriously by the G8. “Today, road crashes kill on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis, yet the international community has not woken up to this horrific waste of life,” the seven times racing world champion said. “The cost to developing countries alone is estimated at up to $100bn a year – equivalent to all overseas aid. But road safety is not yet recognised as a development priority.”
Lord Robertson also called for G8 action, saying “In 2005 the G8 leaders endorsed a significant increase in road investment in Africa which has the world’s most dangerous road network. Through the work of the ‘Infrastructure Consortium for Africa’ the G8 will support a $1.2 billion programme for road investment. But so far the Consortium (which met here in Berlin in January) has not discussed road safety. It will be meeting again in Arusha in Tanzania and road transport will be on the agenda. But will road safety feature at all in the G8’s plans to invest in new road infrastructure? It would be very helpful indeed if the German Government during its G8 Presidency could also support our call for safer road design. This is an issue that really must be on the agenda of the Arusha meeting in October. It would be tragic if new roads in Africa actually made their death toll worse, but at the moment this is a real possibility.
FIA President Max Mosley, also participating in the event along with ADAC President Peter Meyer, called on the German Government to support a UN Ministerial conference. “Later this year the United Nations will be debating road safety again in the General Assembly. On the agenda will be a proposal to hold a first ever UN global ministerial meeting on road safety in 2009. I hope very much that we can count on the German Government to support this proposal”, Max Mosley said.
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