We know that young people take risks, that risky behavior is often the thrill of activity but sometimes, risky behavior can be life threatening, especially when it comes to young people on the road. The reasons for risky behavior amongst young people has been a subject of psychology study for many years, some of the reasons have been explored by TAC Australia;

After YOURS’ rigorous process of recruiting and selecting our Coordinators of the Regions (CORE Group) late last year, the group is being brought together for the first time at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to plan for the years ahead in their two year term as coordinators!

The YOURS CORE Group have already made their mark with their support of the Embrace Life Campaign, our 2011 global road safety awareness campaign that saw organizational record breaking participation from around the world! The CORE Group were recruited late last year after a decision by the staff team in conjunction with the YOURS Youth Taskforce for Road Safety to develop our international reach and expand our global network. The group will meet at the end of the month 27-30th February 2012 which is being hosted by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Swizterland.

The CORE Group which currently represents 4 regions of the world are set to undergo training from the YOURS team on the organization’s strategy and actions plans as well as establish an international CORE Group Action Plan for the years ahead. Training also includes a workshop from Communications Officer at the World Health Organization, Elena Altieri on communication for the network. Additionally, the coordinators will undergo training on YOURS’ new publication, the Youth and Road Safety Action Kit which is set for publiation imminently. 

The CORE Group is made up of the following individuals:

Mr. Aliou Oumarou – Coordinator of African Region (Francophone)

Mr. Axl Druat – Cooridnator of the European Region

Ms. Jennifer Heatley  – Coordinator of the North American Region

Mr. Joel Tucker – Coordinator of the Western Pacific Region

Ms. Sheila Atieno – Coordinator of the African Region (Anglophone)

The CORE Group become an integral part of the YOURS team and outreach structure and have the potential to collectively reach hundreds and thousands of young people around the world with YOURS’ road safety message. This meeting is an exciting period for us as we expand our work with the support of these exceptional young leaders in road safety.

Manpreet Darroch, Coordinator of the Global Youth Network for Road Safety said, ‘This will be a fantastic opportunity for the YOURS wider network to develop their action plans for the regions they represent. This first meeting will unite representatives from 4 regions of the world and we are honoured that the World Health Organization will host our meeting’.

YOURS will be reporting from the CORE Group with personal testimonials from the group to be featured on the YOURS website subsequently.

While Brian’s bi-weekly blog is not due just yet, Brian recently informed us of a tragic loss of life of a young man in his homeland of Uganda. The story holds importance for us as Mr Willington Taremwa was only 27 years of age and was tragically killed in a road crash on his 27th birthday. The story has receieved national coverage and we feature one of those articles here today at YOURS.

This is a sad story told by a group of friends, Mai Gad, Maria Hyttel, Wycliff Kansiime, Zach Liao and Marianne Tellier.

It is about Willington Taremwa, a university student and an employee of Reproductive Health Uganda who was hit by a car while riding on a Boda-boda and left to die on his birthday. Willington Taremwa had a lot of potential. A hard-working university student of population studies and a successful employee for several years with Reproductive Health Uganda as a counsellor, Willington had a bright future ahead.

In addition, Willington, known by his friends as “Will”, was a warm, caring, funny person, a huge support to his colleagues, friends, and family, and held in the highest regard by those that were lucky to know him. December 11, 2010 was Will’s 27th birthday. That day he was studying at Makerere University for one of the last exams necessary to get his degree, as well as preparing a reproductive health youth camp he was coordinating on a voluntary basis.

He was not planning to have a birthday party, as he wanted to save his energy for the challenges of the coming week. Little did he know that his friends had prepared a surprise birthday for him! Sadly, he never found out.

Will left Makerere around 9pm and got on a Boda-boda (motorcycle taxi). On the way, a car hit the Boda. Will flew off the bike to the side of the road. Here the evening’s first tragedy played out: The boda boda and car driver simply took off. Will was rendered unconscious by the fall and must have appeared dead. Thus ensued the second tragedy: Instead of helping him to the hospital or contacting someone from his phone, the passers-by proceeded to take his valuables, as well as all forms of identification, which were essentially of no value to them, but would prove priceless to Will.

Eventually a policeman found him and took him to Mulago hospital. Will slipped in and out of consciousness. As he did not have identification on him, no one knew who he was or whom to contact. The third tragedy sealed his fate: There was no one there to help him fight for his life. At some point he remembered a family address, which he incoherently communicated, but apparently they did not want to or did not have the resources to investigate at that time of night.

Although his injuries were likely treatable, as he was often unconscious and unable to push the doctors to attend to him, he probably did not get the immediate attention that he needed to overcome them; patients that had caretakers around them had a better chance in the human resource-stretched setting of Mulago. Indeed most people in his ward said he was left alone most of the time.

The policeman who had brought him in went to the address the next morning, and his brother was the first to make it to the hospital at 7am. However, he was too late; at that point the doctors were closing Will’s eyes.

Call for Reflection
This kind of thing happens all the time in Uganda. Many of us have heard such stories or know someone involved in something similar. Is this really the kind of society we want, where such young, wonderful promising people are robbed of everything – including the chance to survive?

Nowadays in Uganda and elsewhere, you find that people are often thinking about “me first”: “If I don’t take this guy’s wallet, someone else will, so it might as well be me.” This attitude can be a coping mechanism for the pressures of poverty and insecurity. However, it can also make us lose sight of the big picture of how our actions impact the society we live in.

It can be hard to convince people that they have power through their individual actions to change their society, especially when so many people are struggling just to provide for themselves and their families. But this power does exist, and it’s important for us all to realise that. A society is merely the sum of the interactions between all its members, and any positive change, no matter how small, is important. To prevent such situations in future, the government has an important role to play, for example by undertaking campaigns to promote taking care of our fellow citizens, including accident victims.

But you as a person can also make a difference. Will once wrote: “Everything good starts with ignoring a bad thought but welcoming the good one. Look into yourself and look for that good person in you coz no one was born bad person. Who are you?”

Your actions matter and can change things for the better. So if ever you find yourself in such a situation, please do it right. Take the person to the hospital. If you must steal, call the last dialled numbers and let the person’s friends know where he is before taking the phone. At the very least, leave the person’s contacts on them when you take their wallet.

Will’s death left his family and friends hurting, but if we come together and use our powers to change how we behave in such incidences, we will save other families from similar pain. It all starts – and ends – with us.

Six Olympic champions and thousands of ordinary commuters have backed the Times campaign to improve the safety of cycling in towns and cities in the United Kingdom. Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Boardman, Rebecca Romero and Nicole Cooke, all of whom are Olympic gold medallists, joined Mark Cavendish, the world champion, in supporting the petition calling for a new covenant for cycling. Politicians, television personalities, leading businesses and ten city councils also pledged to support proposals to transform urban areas for bikes.

Official figures published yesterday show how urgent the need to protect cyclists in Britain has become. The number killed or seriously injured rose by 8 per cent in the third quarter of last year, following increases of 10 per cent and 8 per cent in the previous quarters. Death or serious injury among car drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians in contrast continued to fall.

The Times is calling for mandatory improvements to lorries, the redesign of the most dangerous road junctions, better training of cyclists and drivers, reduced speed limits in residential areas and imaginative funding streams to build world-class cycle facilities.The potential for personal tragedy among cyclists and their families was driven home in November, when a reporter for the newspaper, Mary Bowers, was crushed by a lorry on her ride to work. Three months later, she remains unconscious in a hospital bed.

Rebecca Romero said: “I’m really pleased that finally this problem of deaths on the road is being acknowledged, and I hope the weight of the Times campaign can really push this.”

Politicians joined the chorus for improved road safety. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who is a keen cyclist and has promised to bring a cycling revolution to the capital, said: “I applaud the objectives of the campaign and my thoughts have been with their member of staff who was so tragically injured.” He said that his transport team had begun a review of 500 key junctions.

Campaigners called for urgent improvements to road safety. Robert Gifford, of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: “What is needed is consistent political leadership supported by a vision to improve our roads for all road users. Society should not tolerate deaths and injuries that can be prevented, especially when we have the means to prevent them at our disposal.”

Brian Cookson, president of British Cycling, said: “More and more people are cycling and we fully expect London 2012 to inspire even greater numbers to take to their bikes. As a nation we need to embrace this and ensure the roads are as safe as they can possibly be.”

His organisation published a summary of findings yesterday based on feedback received from its members. It called for a range of “mutual respect” measures, including greater cycle awareness in the driving test and Highway Code, better enforcement of the law on mobile phone use while driving, and improvements to poorly laid out roads and junctions.

This article was adapted from the Times and can be read here.

The YOURS team all took part in the United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety in some capacity and now, five years on, are working in international youth and road safety at YOURS. We look at back at the team’s impressions of the assembly and what they did afterwards as part of our special World Youth Assembly feature.

Over 400 young people came together on the foot of the Swiss Alps in April 2007 to discuss global road safety in a changing world. With over 100 countries represented at the United Nations HQ in Geneva, Switzerland, the youth empowering United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety Changed many young lives. Youth delegates left the assembly as United Nations World Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety, we look at where they are now…

As a special feature celebrating 5 years since the first United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety that took place in April 2007 at the United Nations HQ in Geneva, Switzerland, YOURS is putting special spotlights on the the United Nations World Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety! You can read all about the feature and the World Youth Assembly here.

More than 400 young people left the assembly as youth ambassadors having undergone pledges to make young people in their nations safer on the roads through campaigning and road safety work. YOURS will be featuring two ambassadors at a time and today our feature is on the YOURS staff team itself.