UK Development Minister Confirms UN Ministerial Support

UK Development Minister Gareth Thomas MP has confirmed the UK Government’s support for a UN Ministerial conference on global road safety.

UK Development Minister Gareth Thomas MP speaking at the Make Roads Safe dinner

Lord Robertson speaking at the dinner

Speaking at a Make Roads Safe dinner in London, Mr Thomas, who is Parliamentary Secretary at the Department for International Development (DFID) recognised the scale of the global road injury crisis and the need for the development community to act. He said:

“Road traffic accidents kill more than a million people a year and leave up to 50 million injured. In poor countries that have no financial safety net, this can plunge millions of families into poverty. Unlike HIV and AIDS, we have simple solutions to help cut deaths on the road such as basic safety measures, better designed roads, education and more effective law enforcement. DFID is committed to supporting the international effort to improve road safety and make a real difference to eradicating this easily avoidable cause of poverty.”

Also speaking at the dinner Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, warned that work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals will be jeopardised if road safety is not recognised as a development issue.

“By 2015 road crashes are predicted by the World Health Organisation to be the main cause of life-shortening disability for children over the age of four in the developing world, with immense associated health and social costs. Yet road safety is not included in the strategies for delivering the Millennium Development Goals, which have a target year of 2015”, he said.

The Minister’s speech came on the day that DFID published its new strategy for health, which recognises road traffic injuries as an emerging global epidemic. While short on specifics on road safety, the report ‘Working Together for Better Health’ does acknowledge a role for DFID in delivering road safety, saying: “There are specific opportunities for DFID to contribute to better health through action in the infrastructure and environment sectors. Reducing the rising toll of road traffic deaths and injuries requires a range of road safety measures”.

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