French international football star Lilian Thuram has called on the French government to back a UN ministerial conference, as the campaign takes to the Champs Elysées this weekend.
Thuram, a member of the 1998 World Cup winning team; the most capped French international in history; and an adviser to France’s Haut Conseil à l’Intégration, a race relations thinktank; warned of the dangers of neglecting road safety:
“Road crashes are now the number one killer of young people under 25”, he said. “If governments and the public do not become aware of this problem, there will be very little chance of improvement. I hope the French government will support the proposal for a UN conference on road safety”.
Lilian Thuram has joined FC Barcelona teammate Samuel Eto’o in speaking out on behalf of the Make Roads Safe campaign as the drive to sign up supporters for a global petition to the UN hits the streets of Paris. More than 100,000 members of the public are expected to visit the Fête des Transports 2007 exhibition on the Champs Elysées on 26-28 October, where the Make Roads Safe campaign will be promoted. The message, as Lilian Thuram says: “deaths on the roads are preventable!”