On the 27th May 2012, Responsible Young Drivers Beligum uploaded one of their latest road safety videos, the ‘Impossible texting while driving test’. This wholly unique video has, since entering the world wide web via Youtube has received nearly half a million hits making it a real viral sensation and a captivating message that is being spread across the web with gusto.

In a conversation with our CORE Group Representative for Europe, Mr Axel Druart who works for Responsible Young Drivers Beligum, he informed us that the video held a great message but they did not expect this overwhelming response. 

The story beind the video
In order to enhance our road safety campaigns, we manage within the framework of a European road safety project called “AVENUE” (Actions for Vulnerable, Elderly, Novice Drivers and Road Users in Europe) to develop an up-to-date road safety topic based on research and polls and disseminate its results to a bigger audience. To do so, we therefore picked the “Distraction on the road” topic, based on a study organized by the European Commission in Europe, where they stated that ¼ of car crashes were involving some kind of distraction and that 2/3 of the drivers declared using their cell phones while driving. 

Statistics that were completed by a study from Road Safe (UK) stated:

Recent survey findings have revealed that 58% of 17-25 year old drivers agree that smartphone apps are causing young people to be more distracted at the wheel. This very survey of 1,000 young drivers, conducted by One Poll, has uncovered the extent of how smartphones and social media are distracting 17-25 year olds when behind the wheel. It revealed the following relevant points:

• Over 40% admitted to answering their phones while driving without a hands-free set
• 44% said they had sent a text message, and 62% said they had read a message while they were driving
• 1 in 6 male drivers under 25 has crashed due to mobile phone usage at the wheel
• One third of under 25s who use Facebook on their phone admitted to using it whilst driving
• Hands-free kits encourage 53% more young drivers to make longer calls at the wheel (longer than 5 minutes)

During an action managed by the volunteers of Responsible Young Drivers in Belgium, we received a question that made us deeply think of a possible campaign to realize. Indeed, a reveller in an action asked us why the use of mobile phone was not included in the driving licence test…

After a brainstorming with young volunteers and our young staff, we contacted a driving school in order to know if they would be interested in making a “candid camera” to show and convince youngsters that driving and texting can be extremely dangerous, by adding this exercise to the driving lessons (pretending it’s a new Belgian law).

Surprisingly, it worked extremely well. And the results is what you see on the video. There’s of course no cheating; these youngsters were real driving students and truly believed in this new Texting & driving law in driving schools. We do hope that through this video, youngsters will realize by themselves that the use of cell-phones is indeed very dangerous while driving and then understand why banning it from driving should be extremely benefiting for a safer road…

View the video now in the right column and tell us what you think!

Yesterday, at the Decade of Action Policy and Donor Forum held in New York City, Founding Member of YOURS Michelin received the prestigious and highly coveted International Road Safety Award from HRH Prince Michael of Kent. Michelin were praised for their outstanding contribution to global road safety.

“Michelin is a global leader in road safety innovation not only through its product development but also in the field of care for its own employees,” said His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, Royal Patron of The Commission for Global Road Safety, and added: “But its wider corporate commitment to community safety and international programs is an outstanding example to all businesses.”

The award is given to Michelin for the outstanding contribution they have given to global road safety. Michelin was one of the key organizations behind YOURS helping to set it up, through their belief in young people’s potential to speak to their peers and effectuate lasting impact through road safety.

As part of its corporate social responsibility commitment, Michelin constantly and actively deploys a global system designed to put a halt to the serious problem of road safety. That’s because the Group’s strategic focus on performance would be meaningless without an on-going commitment to making roads safer, everywhere, around the world. In addition to its tyres and their performance, Michelin supports measures to make driving safer, providing employees with training and promoting road safety to the general public. Addressing the challenge of road safety represents a concrete application of one of Michelin’s core values – respect for people.

Every week more than 7,000 people around the world are killed in work-related traffic accidents, including commuting to and from work. In response, Michelin has introduced internal campaigns promoting safer driving practices and more efficient travel management. Since 2009, all sales and marketing employees take part in road safety training courses. Information tools include a Road Safety awareness kit provided to all employees in countries where Michelin has manufacturing operations. In the UK, the accident rate of the Group’s car fleet has been cut by more than 50% since a comprehensive driving policy was implemented five years ago.

In addition to these internal measures, Michelin over the past 10 years has introduced a wide range of road safety programs in the countries in which it operates. While each program is adapted to the local situation, and often conducted in or with host communities, they are all designed to raise awareness about road-related dangers. Many of the programs target young people, cyclists and pedestrians, who are considered to be the most vulnerable road users.

One outstanding example is Michelin Junior Bike, an initiative that helps young people learn traffic regulations in a fun way and shows them how important it is to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. Since 1998 in Italy alone, more than 184,000 children have participated in this program, which in recent years has also been held in France and the UK and is being introduced in more and more emerging countries. Other programs include The Safest Way, which is aimed at schoolchildren and is organised in partnership with local councils in Italy and Brazil, and Fill up with Air, which educates motorists about the importance of maintaining the correct tyre pressure in order to ensure their own safety as well as that of other road users. Conducted in Europe since 2003, Fill up with Air has recently been introduced on other continents.

All of these initiatives reflect Michelin’s long term commitment, which is also expressed in engagement through road safety charters  signed at  national and European level – Michelin also supports programs launched by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), in particular its five-year pilot projects introduced in China, the ASEAN countries, India and Brazil. 

In May 2011, Michelin was one of the first companies, to sign the Global Road Safety Commitment in support of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 launched by the United Nations. In 2012, Michelin is investing €6 million worldwide to support global road safety initiatives.

In addition to Michelin, Sweden and the Gonzalo Rodrigues Foundation also received a Prince Michael Award for Road Safety. The Mayor of New York Rt Hon. Mr Michael Bloomberg received the first Decade of Action Road Safety Award for his outstanding contribution to road safety. Read about this here.

YOURS Director, Mr Floor Lieshout commented, “On behalf of the YOURS team we would like to congratulate Michelin with winning the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. The commitment of Michelin towards road safety is outstanding and it is a well deserved prize and recognition for their work. We are proud to have such a Founding Member”.

The first annual Decade of Action for Road Policy and Donor Forum will be held today in New York City, USA. The 2012 Decade of Action Forum will be held alongside the prestigious international road safety awards presented by HRH Prince Michael of Kent who will announce the first Decade of Action for Road Safety Award organized by the Road Safety Fund in partnership with the Commission for Global Road Safety.

The Forum  will address the role of road safety and sustainable transportation in contributing to shared goals for sustainable development, particularly in the context of the forthcoming “Rio+20” UN Conference on Sustainable Development. It will also include a session examining the investment case for funding road traffic injury prevention. The meeting will hear from a range of perspectives, including high level international policymakers and academics, philanthropies, the corporate sector and NGO leaders working in the frontline of the global road injury epidemic.

The event will be held at The Pierre, New York City, on Wednesday 2nd May 2012, and will include an Awards Luncheon for the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent GCVO, who will announce the first recipient of his prestigious annual Decade of Action Award for outstanding achievement in the field of global road traffic injury prevention. Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, will be Guest of Honour at the Luncheon.

The Donor Forum supports the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and provides an opportunity for organisations and companies that are contributing to road traffic injury prevention to exchange knowledge and experiences and build new partnerships. The invitation-only event will also enable potential new donors to learn more about this global movement working to save five million lives on the world’s roads by 2020.

The provisional agenda of the Forum can be viewed in the attachments in the right column. YOURS wll be reporting on the winner of the First Decade of Action Award tomorrow. You can also see the YOURS launch of the Decade of Road Safety video that we ran with 450 young people at the OSAID conference in Canada!

In a partnership with the Road Safety Fund, one of the world’s most frequently read papers, The Guardian, features a regular road safety column to bring attention to the global road safety crisis. In an article featuring a report requesting for the embedding of road safety into the forthcoming  Rio+20 Framework, The Guardian has featured an article focusing on the biggest killer of young people; road traffic crashes.

Roads are now the biggest killer of young people over the age of 10, with road traffic deaths constituting a global health epidemic that has reached crisis proportions, according to a report published on Wednesday.

The Safe and Sustainable Roads report, launched by the Campaign for Global Road Safety, says road safety is one of the world’s greatest development challenges and predicts the number of people killed in traffic accidents will rise from 1.3 million to 2 million a year if no urgent action is taken.

Currently, 3,500 people die every day in traffic-related incidents and 50 million are injured every year on the world’s roads.

The report blames the high numbers of fatalities on transport policies that put vehicles, highways and speed before people and road safety. The vast majority of those who die are in developing countries, with 20 countries accounting for 70% of global road deaths.

Children and young people are the worst affected, with road traffic injuries now the single biggest source of fatality among 10- to 24-year-olds worldwide. In 2004, the last year for which comprehensive data is available, road traffic injuries killed more 5- to 14-year-olds than malaria, diarrhoea and HIV and Aids.

If left unhindered, the report warns that spiralling road deaths and injuries will be a significant barrier to the world hitting education and poverty targets set out in the millennium development goals.

The Campaign for Global Road Safety is urging world leaders to take urgent action to integrate sustainable transport and road safety into the Rio+20 framework.

At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want.

It warns there is no “hidden magic bullet” for tackling road safety but says that, unlike many other health epidemics, there are simple, affordable and tested interventions that are simply not being applied or enforced. These include the enforcement of rules on crash helmets, seat belts and drink driving, and the strengthening of vehicle safety provisions.

“The epidemic of road traffic injury is a source of poverty, human suffering and economic waste on a global scale,” says Kevin Watkins, senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the report. “Over the next two decades, the number of vehicles in the world’s poorest countries will increase at an unprecedented rate. Unlike some of the issues that will be discussed at the Rio+20 summit, there are few unknowns in road safety. It’s not rocket science, yet progress has been painfully slow.

“Bilateral donors and the World Bank have been talking for years about putting road safety at the centre of their infrastructure programmes – but the rhetoric has yet to deliver results.”

The report sets out recommendations that could help prevent road deaths, including stronger regulation to prevent car manufacturers conducting a “race to the bottom” in vehicle safety provisions for the poorest countries. It says an additional $200m is needed annually to support the development of national road safety strategies in countries worst hit by road traffic fatalities.

You can view the report in the attachments in the right column.

Whether we love them or hate them, there is no denying the power of the celebrity when getting a public message across. While most celebrities choose to stick away from pro-bono or public interest work, other embrace social action and use their influence in the interest of society. Since the Decade of Action for Road Safety launched in May last year, numerous celebrities have pledged for road safety, here we take a look at a few of them.

“As any parent will know, there are real concerns and worries attached to being a mum or dad when your son or daughter heads out on those first few solo journeys. Every one of us has the potential to influence the way a young person will drive. It’s our shared responsibility to be good role models and take driving as seriously as we hope they will” – Gary Lineker

So how can celebrities further the youth and road safety cause? Endorsements from public figures is just one of the many routes that the well-known household names can raise awareness to, but this is often where the buck stops. Endorsements coupled with robust road safety messages and road safety training alongside appropriate laws, enforcement and infrastructure will help us win the battle against road deaths and create a sustainable solution to the road safety crisis facing young people.

So if you are hoping that Rihanna, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber or your all-time hero would back road safety, you should think long and hard about the messages they share in their day-to-day life. Afterall, celebrities, like us are just people. A star that lives the rock and roll lifestyle could break the road safety message you worked so long to get endorsed so a word of caution and restraint is necessary. If we wish to create impact through these endorsements, ensure that you choose appropriate figureheads as have the leaders behind the Decade of Action awareness team.

Nevertheless, we believe the real heroes are the young people who champion road safety everyday!

What do you think? Who would you like to see support road safety? Let us know at info@youthforroadsafety.org

See other famous endorsements:

• Eurovision Singers
• Senagalese Football Stars
• Tottenham Hotspurs and Orlando Pirates
• Zenani Mandela and the Mandela family
• Kenya Stars
• Irish Motorcycle Stars