Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Urge UN Action on Road Safety

The United Nations must take urgent steps to address the world’s growing road deaths crisis, Nobel Peace Prize winners and leading international figures supporting the Make Roads Safe campaign warn today.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Oscar Arias are leading the call for a global Ministerial Conference on road safety in an open letter submitted to the UN and published in several leading newspapers today. The Make Roads Safe campaign will also deliver a petition of more than one million signatures from people around the world to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York today.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said:

“The UN can decide today whether or not to take action – if the children, pedestrians and cyclists in developing countries, who represent the vast majority of the casualties, had the vote there would only be one outcome.”

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said:

“As our world becomes increasingly mobile, it is imperative that we give more attention to the safety of our roads and methods of transportation. The Make Roads Safe campaign is an essential step towards saving the 3000 lives that are lost daily in road accidents.”

President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, said:

“In a world facing war and violence of many kinds, the violent deaths on our planet’s roadways often go unnoticed. Strong leadership from the heart of the United Nations is vital if we are to give this problem the attention it deserves, and end these tragic and preventable losses. I express my heartfelt support for the Make Roads Safe campaign.”

The Make Roads Safe campaign’s open letter is also signed by leading figures from the development, health and transport communities, including former Irish President and UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson; former US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta; Swedish road safety expert and architect of ‘Vision Zero’, Professor Claes Tingvall; US injury prevention expert Professor Susan P. Baker; Peter Adamson, a leading researcher and veteran of Unicef’s child immunisation campaigns; and Kevin Watkins, former director of the UN Human Development Report.

Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, which first proposed a global Ministerial conference, will address the UN General Assembly today and present the Open Letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon.

“Today’s debate can mark the moment when the world community looks out at the suffering, the grief, and the cost of road injuries and decides to begin to end it. This is in our power to do. Collectively we have the tools, we have the knowledge, and we have the means. We must act”, he said.

Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress, another signatory to the letter, said:

“The UN must act on road safety, urgently. Every three minutes a child dies on the world’s roads and these lives can be saved. We need a global action plan to ensure that key safety measures are put in place. If the international community does not tackle the growing road safety crisis many more lives will be tragically lost.”