On 10th April 2019, we joined the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and its Global Meeting, to work with NGOs focusing on meaningful youth participation in road safety and the 2nd World Youth Assembly. The pre-meeting workshop brought together NGOs from around the world who were eager to hear more about road safety and youth.

The pre-meeting workshop focused on the following objectives:

• Explore why youth should be involved in the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, Stockholm, Sweden (February 2020), via the 2nd World Youth Assembly (WYA);
• To raise awareness of the importance of meaningful youth participation in all elements of road safety decision-making and explore the power of youth in road safety;
• To raise awareness of the WYA that precedes the Ministerial conference;
• Work with NGOs to explore how they can be involved in the WYA and the role of civil society.

Participants were introduced to key concepts behind meaningful youth participation for road safety, ensuring it is built in to the safe system approach and not bolted on in tokenism or decoration. Meaningful youth participation is essential in giving young people a voice as well as offering platforms for young people to take action.

“Who knows better about youth than youth themselves?”

NGOs expressed a strong will to be involved with the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety that will take place as a pre-event to the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in February 2020, Stockholm, Sweden.

NGOS were asked to review how youth participatory their work has been and to see how they can increase their levels of participation.

Every day, nearly 1000 young people die on the world’s roads. 1000 is not just a number, each life lost represents a face, a family, a friend group, a community. In low and middle-income countries, where young populations are commonplace, it represents the loss of breadwinners, a worksforce, a future leader and the backbones of communities. This is why, before the statistics, engaging young people is essential to give them a chance at first being empowered to be safer on the road as well as take action to help create policies that are reflective of the lives young people live.

At the end of the workshop, participants agreed on the following demands and commitments:

1. We call on our country minister responsible for road safety to attend the 3rd Ministerial Conference in Sweden;
2. We demand that our minister brings a youth delegation to attend the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety taking place before the ministerial;
3. We commit to championing meaningful youth participation in our road safety practice.

Thank you to all the NGOs who took part in our workshop session.

READ MORE ABOUT GLOBAL ADVOCACY AT YOURS

Our regular columnist Brian Bilal Mwebaze is back to reflect on the number of lives lost in road crashes. Brian gives a unique insight into youth and road safety issues from an African perspective.

March, what a month it’s been!

Boeing 737Max plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after take-off enroute to Nairobi from Addis Ababa with 149 passengers and eight crew on board. The crash registered no survivors. A preliminary report was expected on April 1. Tributes and memorial services continue to flow in including on social media. We await the truth behind this occurrence and hope immediate mutually respectful decisions are made to avoid this tragedy.

Back to road safety, in Cameroun,  Securoute Association launched a Road safety Campaign at Ngomedzap on the 7^th of March 2019 with an aim to sensitise road users, community , children  against road safety risks during the construction of Yaounde Ngoumou  road connecting to the new deep sea port at  Kribi. Considering this is going to be a 2 year road safety awareness programme, we at YOURS hope that this will be as inclusive as possible particularly with youths as a key vulnerable group. Major thanks to SATOM SOGEA and Cameroon Ministry of Publics works.

In Malawi, on the morning hours of  11^th of March 2019 five people sustained various degrees of injuries following a road crash at Chichiri Roundabout in Blantyre. A seemingly speeding truck hit from behind a stationary motor which rolled over and hit another motor vehicle which was giving way to vehicles negotiating the said round about before hitting yet another motor vehicle was coming from the direction of Kwacha round about. The said truck then hit the Chichiri shopping mall fence. You might still be wondering, but that’s right, this crash happened on a roundabout! Outrageous right? I know. You would expect cars to be slow, with everybody careful holding out for the right of way rule, but well, that wasn’t the case.

In Ghana, on March 8^th, Transport Minister, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah addressing the media, made a huge revelation that a total of 190 people were killed through road crashes in the calendar month of January 2019 ALONE. These avoidable deaths were caused as a result of indiscipline among road users by way of excessive speeding, wrongful overtaking, disrespect for traffic signs but missed out comprehensively covering the safe systems approach to include poor roads and government-licensed vehicles in poor conditions.

In the same country, more than 70 passengers died while onboard two buses that collided head-on in the early hours of Friday March 22, 2019 on the Tamale-Kintampo Highway . Social media was awash with allegations of one of the drivers having slept off. You have to look at how long the drivers drive, whether there’re active checkpoints.

In Egypt, 23 illegal immigrants, of Egyptian nationalities, were injured when their car collided with another vehicle on an oil spill on the road which leaked from the 12-Amal field line in the town of Aqeelah, south of Sidra Gulf.

In Libya, while illegally migrating, 23 migrants were injured while heading to Bani Walid city coming from Tobruk when their car collided with another vehicle as they passed on an oil spill on the road at high speed, causing the two cars to go up in flames.

In Uganda cumulatively, 32 lives were lost on Kampala-Gulu highway in three months between January and March. The residents on the 275km- stretch have, however, blamed among others the lack of humps at the 13 major blackspots, police authorities, Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) engineers and reckless driving for every crash.

Think about each one of the lives mentioned herein. Each one of them has a story. To come to a bitter conclusion that these lives would have been prevented is hard to take. Imagine what happened in other countries not mentioned. Imagine those whose lives were not reported. And you wonder why this is not an outrage! Do your part. Stay safe.

FACES BEHIND THE FIGURES (WHO)

FOLLOW BRIAN ON TWITTER

Towards Zero is Victoria’s (Australia) plan to ensure no one is seriously injured on our roads. It acknowledges that we all face risks on our roads. But our choice to use the road shouldn’t cost us our lives.

That’s why we need to ensure we have a safe transport system in place. Together we can build a system that protects us from our own mistakes and those of others.

The video shows the human side the road safety campaigning. Where we often get caught up in numbers, statistics or nameless deaths; this campaign puts human life back in the centre of the picture highlighting that zero lives lost is the most acceptable number.

The campaign is backed up by strong evidence on what needs to change to save lives: safe roads, safe speeds safe vehicles and safe people.

Everyone has a role to play in keeping safe on  roads.  There are people all around us who have survived crashes thanks to life-saving road safety initiatives.  Here are just a handful of everyday people telling their stories, we call them our living proof. They help show us how we can achieve a future where no person dies or is seriously hurt on our roads.

READ MORE ABOUT TAC VICTORIA’S CAMPAIGN

We recently joined the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRSC), the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) and the Nepal Red Cross to explore and present information on youth and road safety engagement in road safety. The webinar was lead by the IFRSC and GRSP in Malaysia and we were invited to share our perspectives on youth engagement in road safety. The webinar can be viewed here.