Delegates lined up to sign the Make Roads Safe petition
Prof. Gerard Saillant, French member of the Commission for Global Road Safety
The Make Roads Safe campaign has attracted widespread support at the world’s premier transport policy event in Paris.
Delegates at the World Road Congress from 18-21 September lined up to sign the Make Roads Safe petition lending their support to calls for the UN to hold a Ministerial meeting on road safety.
Colin Jordan, President of the World Road Association (PIARC) was among the high profile figures to sign up to the campaign.
He said that PIARC is making the issue a priority.
“Road safety is certainly the number one issue on our agenda around the world,” he said. “The challenges that are before us on road safety are as large as ever. The difference to how it’s been in the past is that now we know how to tackle the problem better. What we need is a global framework to tackle road safety.
“The Make Roads Safe campaign is incredibly important. What sets it apart is its global dimension. We need to have a global perspective but also to take a serious look at the developing world where it’s becoming a real public health problem.”
The campaign held a reception for delegates on the first day of the conference.
Gérard Saillant, Professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, and member of the Commission for Global Road Safety spoke at the event. He called for urgent global action.
"500 children are killed every day on the world's roads," Professor Saillant said. "This is a truly terrible death toll and we have to act now to tackle the problem."
The campaign also launched a new report on road safety with contributions from Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and an interview with Director of the UN Development Report Kevin Watkins.
Watkins said that road safety needs to be tackled at a UN level as it could have a serious impact on other policy areas.
“I think that there are so many areas of development where the adverse impact of road accidents is a common theme in undermining what we’re all trying to achieve which is a better world with less poverty improve health and greater opportunities in education.
“Unless we can do something about tackling that problem our progress in all of those other areas is going to be held back.”