Michelle Yeoh responds to questions.
Make Roads Safe ambassador Michelle Yeoh has urged senior Chinese road safety officials to support a global Decade of Action for Road Safety at a campaign event in Shanghai.
Michelle Yeoh called on China to realise its potential to be a road safety ‘world leader’ both at home and abroad during a seminar organised by the FIA Foundation and the Chinese Federation of Automobile Sports (FASC).
In her address to the meeting, Michelle Yeoh said: “I hope that the Chinese Government will send a high level delegation to the Moscow meeting and will support the proposed Decade of Action. China has the potential to become a world leader in road safety. I know that all of you here today want safety to be the first priority – for the vehicles you build for sale here or for export, for the roads you are building here and abroad, particularly in Africa, in the enforcement and education policies you develop”.
Michelle Yeoh then joined Yan Jianchang, Deputy President of the FASC, to sign a Decade of Action campaign placard and take questions from the media.
Zhao Xiaoping, Secretary General of the Road Traffic Safety Association of China, part of the Ministry of Public Security, and Cai Tuanjie, Director of Vehicle Management in the Department of Communications and Transport both gave keynote speeches outlining the broad range of measures the Chinese government is taking to tackle road fatalities – estimated at up to 100,000 a year.
The meeting also heard from FIA Foundation Deputy Director Saul Billingsley, who urged Chinese policymakers to replicate their effective battle against malaria – cut from 25 million cases in the early 1970s to several thousand today – by committing to ambitious road injury reductions.
The event, attended by organisations including the One Foundation and Save the Children, also heard from a panel on the life-saving potential for a Decade of Action. Mirjam Sidik, Executive Director of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, explained the public awareness strategy behind Vietnam’s successful introduction of universal adult helmet wearing (few riders in Shanghai yet wear crash helmets); Rob McInerney, of the International Road Assessment Programme, described the joint venture with the Chinese Government to inspect and rate more than 2000km of roads for safety design. Rebecca Ivers, Injury Director of the George Institute, reviewed the potential for cost effective casualty reduction through seat belt wearing, based on the results of a large scale field study in the Chinese city of Guangzhou.