Tag Archives: global road safety

Public Health Supplement: Global Road Safety; Monitoring Risks and Evaluating Programs

A source of articles related to road safety and public health issues: Supplement: Global Road Safety: Monitoring Risks and Evaluating Programs, Public Health, March 2017
Volume 144, Supplement, S1-S70, Edited by David Bishai, Adnan A. Hyder

“EU transport ministers back ‘ambitious’ vehicle safety improvements”

EU transport ministers back ‘ambitious’ vehicle safety improvements, February 10, 2017, European Transport Safety Council

Eight EU transport ministers have called on the European Commission to ‘speed up’ plans to upgrade vehicle safety standards saying road safety should be ‘top priority’.

In a letter to the European Commissioner for industry Elżbieta Bieńkowska, the transport ministers of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands said ‘ambitious’ new vehicle safety standards are needed ‘to help Member States halve the number of road deaths by 2020’. . .

In December 2016, the European Commission published a list of 19 lifesaving safety technologies that could be made mandatory on new vehicles in proposals expected later in 2017.  At the time, the European Transport Safety Council said several critical areas for action are missing, and the proposed timescale is far too long considering that most of the technologies are already available today.

What about the United States?

Road safety: global health issue too-long ignored & 2 primary challenges to reducing road fatalities

So, this is an interesting read about road safety as a global health issue that has been ignored for too long. Please note the statement about the “two primary challenges to reducing road fatalities”:

Globally, road injuries are the top cause of death among people ages 15 to 29 – claiming upwards of a million lives a year. What’s more, 90% (pdf) of the world’s road deaths and serious injuries take place in low and middle-income countries, according to the United Nations (UN).

This global health emergency is finally starting to get the attention it deserves. We’re in the midst of the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, which lasts until 2020; and in April, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to improve road safety.

But Dr Kelly Henning, leader of the Bloomberg Global Road Safety Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, says there are two primary challenges to reducing road fatalities. First, despite recent efforts to raise the profile of road safety, the issue isn’t broadly appreciated. Second, progress requires several sections of government to work together. As she notes: “It is about health, but also involves [action from] traffic police and road engineers, so it requires a lot of political attention.”  Road safety: the global health issue that’s been ignored for too long by Sue George, June 9, 2016

President Obama