UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020
08.06.201015:33
Piotr
The United Nations has called the years 2011-2020 a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’ with the goal to stabilise and then reduce road deaths around the world by 2020 by increasing activities conducted at the national, regional and global levels. Every year, from 20 to 50 million people are injured, many diabled as a result. The economic and social costs are huge, and to the detriment of sustainable development.
On 3 March 2010, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2011-2020 a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’, with the aim to improve road safety within the next 10 years. Poland is one of its promotors. The UN is obliged to work towards reducing deaths and injured on roads. The resolution requests World Helath Organisation and UN Regional Commissions to prepare a Plan of Action for the Decade and calls upon the Member States to implement road safety activities, particularly in the areas of road safety management, road infrastructure, vehicle safety and road user behaviour.
The Member States are also invited to set their own national road traffic casualty reduction targets to be achieved by the end of the Decade, in line with the Plan of Action, and pay particular attention to the main risk factors identified, namely:
• the non-use of safety belts and child restraints,
• the non-use of helmets,
• driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs,
• inappropriate and excessive speed,
• the lack of appropriate infrastructure,
• strengthening road safety management,
• paying particular attention also to the needs of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, and users of unsafe public transport,
• and improving post-crash care for victims of road crashes.
The resolution also calls for the further strengthening of international cooperation and knowledge-sharing in road safety. The solution to the global road safety crisis can only be implemented through multisectoral collaboration and partnerships among all concerned in both the public and private sectors, with the involvement of civil society. The Governments are invited to take a leading role in implementing the activities of the Decade, while fostering a multisectoral collaboration of efforts that includes academia, professional associations, international and non-governmental organizations, and civil society, victims’ organizations and youth organizations, media, financial institutions and the private sector.
