UNESCAP Transport Director Dong-woo Ha launches the road safety Tag, with FIA Foundation’s Rita Cuypers and Madan Regmi, UNESCAP Economic Affairs Officer.
UNESCAP Transport Director Dong-woo Ha launches the road safety Tag with officials from WHO, FIA Foundation and UNESCAP.
The United Nations regional commission for Asia and the Pacific has held a meeting of road safety experts to plan a regional road safety target for the Decade of Action.
The meeting, held at UNESCAP headquarters in Bangkok on 21-23 September, agreed a proposal to revise a 2015 casualty reduction target originally set by transport ministers in Busan in 2006 and extend it to 2020 in line with the global Decade of Action. The objective for the Asian and Pacific Region was set at a 50% fatality and serious injury rate reduction by the year 2020. The UNESCAP secretariat is planning to undertake advisory missions to developing member countries to assist in developing national road safety strategies and action plan and provide support in organizing national
workshops with participation of all stakeholders involved in the area of road safety.
The UNESCAP meeting also formally launched the road safety ‘Tag’, the new global symbol for the road safety Decade.
To achieve the 50% target, measures to improve road safety including: (i) introduction of laws and regulations and enforcement; (ii) capacity building programmes including training; (iii) road assessment programme; (iv) motorcycle lanes for countries with a large motorcycle population; (v) blackspot improvement programmes; (vi) proper use of standard helmet; (vii) provision of emergency health care; (viii) development of safe infrastructure; (ix) education and awareness programmes.
The meeting also reviewed the current road traffic situation in the region. With an estimated 700,000 road traffic deaths per year, Asia now accounts for more than half of the world’s road fatalities and this is likely to increase to two thirds by 2020. China, which with a vehicle population of 160 million in 2007 has become the largest automobile market and third largest automobile manufacturing country in the world, and India accounted for more than half of the reported number of road fatalities in the ESCAP region in 2007.
The motorisation rate and transport mode in the member countries of the ESCAP region vary widely. In Asia, vulnerable road users form the majority of those killed or injured in road traffic accidents. In South Asian countries, more than 50 per cent of all road fatalities are pedestrians. In East Asian and South-East Asian countries, more than two thirds of the victims are motorcyclists. North and Central Asia on the other hand have more motor vehicles and are comparable to OECD countries.
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