“We are here to talk about speed; speed is at the core of the road traffic injury problem. 1 in 3 road traffic deaths occur because someone has been driving too fast”. – Dr Maraget Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

Spotlighting the relationship between speeding and traffic fatalities – speeding contributes to one in three traffic deaths – the UN health agency, ahead of Global Road Safety Week, is urging countries to take measures to curb dangerous driving behaviour.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.25 million people die every year on the world’s roads. Close to half of those tragic deaths are caused by drivers going faster than posted speed limits.

“If countries were to address just this key risk, they would soon reap the rewards of safer roads, both in terms of lives saved and increases in walking and cycling, with profound and lasting effects on health.”

To raise awareness and avoid tragedy hundreds of events are being organized throughout Global Road Safety Week. WHO points out that these events will contribute to achievement of the road safety-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The UN health agency points to research that shows that a five per cent cut in average speed can result in a 30 per cent reduction in the number of fatal road traffic crashes.

The Fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week kicks in less than two weeks time from today! From 8-14 May 2017, campaigners, organizations, companies, governments and many more will encourage the world to #SlowDown. The Week is dedicated to speed management and we can all take steps to make our roads safer.

Don’t forget, if you are running an event, please register it in the global calendar of events. Register your event here.

The Team at 20’s Plenty for Us (UK) have put together this guidance of creating a photo opportunity for the UN Week:

Images and photos matter to slower speeds activism. Thinking about, and setting up, a photo opportunity is a key part of doing a successful #SlowDown day and press release to ask for, or celebrate, slower speeds in the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week. 8-14 May 2017. The theme is Save Lives: #SlowDown

1. Register – please first log your intention to do something on the UN site –  It’s OK if details are sketchy. We need as many campaigns to join in as possible, so just put a marker down that you are doing something. Claim your free £20 worth of 20’s Plenty stickers to the first 20 registrations via rod.k@20splenty.org

2. Who? The ideal picture has a prominent person/people supporting 20mph limits and road safety. You could invite all the Councillors, candidates, Police and Crime Commissioner, MP, Director of Public Health. Plus local community figure heads or celebrities (as they are always newsworthy). If you can, then get children there with the photo permission of their parents. Eg young kids on bikes make great photos. Crucially, you must invite the local press photographers along (and ideally reporters, radio TV etc) or at least someone who is going to reliably take lots of high quality pictures or even videos.
3. Where? On a street you want 20mph limits / where there has been a casualty (see www.crashmaps.co.uk )/ outside the council buildings.  Have a back up indoor location for rain.
4. When? Ideally early in the week so Monday 8 or Tuesday 9 May so that it gets in the news in 8-14 May. It depends when you and the key people are available.  We suggest you email or ring the key one or two people and arrange it with them and then tell everyone else on your lists that date, time and place.
5. What?  A Slow Down toolkit by 20’s Plenty for Us is here. It’s full of ideas for what to do/have in pictures like people holding 20mph posters, UN Road Safety signs with why they support slower speeds written on, chalking out casualties on roads/pavements, roadside memorial flowers, speed watch, banners, a community walkabout with elected people and much more.
6. Email out your press release at least a few days before (ideally up to a working week in advance) – see the template downloadable from here.  Tell us too.
7. Confirm – Ring the press to check they got it and book the photographer to be there.
8. Have fun on the day. Take pictures with politicians of many parties together, or apart if they insist.
9. Distribute photos – Once you’ve done your event photo/s please send them out widely eg on email, twitter, facebook, to the press etc with a write up of what happened, who is in the pictures, their quotes etc. We’d like to know and also WHO would be delighted too – send to mediainquiries@who.int
10. Use the photos on your ongoing campaigning materials.
11. Reward yourself somehow for being an active campaigner.  Well done and thank you very much. Without grassroots activists calling for change, not a lot can change, so we rely on you.

DOWNLOAD THE #SLOWDOWN DAY TOOLKIT

Every day we have good reasons to go somewhere important, whether we leave our homes for work, school or play. However, getting safely to where we are going is as important as getting there at all.

By slowing down, observing speed limits appropriate for the roads and not speeding, we make the roads safer for all. For children walking to school, for the elderly crossing the road, for workers driving to places of work and all road users. Speeding is a major risk factor. The more your speed, the higher the risk of a crash as well as the severity of crash consequences. Speeding also affects other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Slowing down is safe.

LOG ON TO THE UN GLOBAL ROAD SAFETY WEEK WEBSITE

The first cohort of the Alliance Road Safety Advocates were selected through a strict, rigourous and competitive process among member NGOs of the Alliance.

“Selected participants must be self-starters who possess the experience, dedication, and willingness to make a change”.

The Road Safety Advocates will become role models for other Alliance Members, governments, and their communities in key risk areas and will actively advocate for road safety change!

Observational writing is one of Brian’s specialities. Our regular column observes the state of play in his home country of Uganda and all across Africa and writes about them in reflection, tongue-in-cheek and thought provoking ways. In this column, Brian explores the link between road safety and littering, a phenomena not so unique to Uganda but exists in unique ways.

They seem to have been born with a piece of meat in their hands or better, baptized in the name of meat the father, son and Holy Spirit. They have, to say the least, fallen in love, married happily thereafter with their meat. Their appetite for particularly, roasted meat most often served along stopovers on major highways is so strong that it could score well above 6.9 on a Richter scale. (Officially making it yet another disaster). But ofcourse, this is not anything until…well, they get on the road!

Muchomo:-a well seasoned cultured term to mean roasted goat,cow,poultry meat (name it) most often served on sticks, sometimes packed in all sorts of packaging ranging from polythene bags to recyclable paper is but a sure delicacy that road users prefer to munch as they mind their businesses to and fro “making a living”.

In Uganda, (a country where everything is possible), roasted ready meat can be accessed with as much ease as finding a pothole on a 2 year old road. Luckily, unlike Kenya, Tanzania or Rwanda, the Ministry of Health and the government for that matter still looks on with one eye closed as meat vendors do their businesses along high ways:-but of course you know the story of meat vs dust-gas fumes and hygiene…but look, this is not why I’m writing about it.

Some folks carry this packaged roasted meat along with them and throw sticks, packaging materials and bones through the windows as they drive along! A friend of mine (Credits A. Shaban A.Mugweri (@IGWEEShaban) lamented on Facebook how he survived a crash

“Driving from Jinja to Kampala these days is becoming a very high risk Job. Forget the heavy traffic flow. There is a bad habit of passengers and their drivers eating delicacies in the cars or buses/taxis throwing their rubbish/garbage through the windows. This morning, I survived an accident in Mabira as two ladies in a white Raum threw “muchomo” sticks and empty mineral water bottles…. and their garbage landed straight to my windscreen. This is very dangerous and it is an extremely uncivilised behavior which depicts us a mannerless nation (no matter who does it).

A friend of mine who was behind me saw this and tried to speak to the ladies as we approached Lugazi…and damn!!! I have no idea how much insults he received from these angry Ladies. He insisted on reporting to Police and I asked him to ignore as we have a long day ahead. Don’t you think its time to have an Environmental Police in Place?”

In  South Africa, Cape Town fire chief Ian Schnetler wants Capetonians to report motorists who toss cigarette butts out of their car windows. Schnetler warned motorists that they would be fined if they are caught flicking stompies out of their car windows. In fact, a single burning butt can wreak havoc on people’s lives and cause significant economic damage.

Offenders could face a fine of R500. They could be arrested and charged with arson if the act of dropping a burning butt causes a fire. A person who causes a fire may even be sued for damages. But on the other side of the coin there are reports of robbers really engaging in a “new” form of crime, flinging eggs at car windshields to impair drivers’ vision and force them to stop. Another friend seems to professionally and sarcastically drop the mic when she says “Perhaps, it’s how their parents brought them up”.

Perhaps a culture of anti-littering goes hand in hand with the culture of road safety. After all, when someone litters, they litter their own roads, their own community, their own paths. Perhaps its the same with road safety, people feel disconnected in their cars? Disconnected from the community on the road? The pedestrians they speed past are not ‘their family’ and the road they litter is the road they don’t walk.

Perhaps a love for one’s neighbourhood, community and people is the key to curbing litter (and road safety for all)…from a non selfish approach to a country building one!

People who litter on the road, especially through their car window either don’t care about the surroundings or think they own them! Now let’s think about people who speed…either they care less about their surroundings or think their own the road. Let’s take more care of our spaces, they are ours and we are theirs, stop littering and perhaps our care for the road will also increase!

#StopLitteringOnTheRoad #StaySafe

The biannual Fifth Global Meeting of Nongovernmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Honorable Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai, Minister, Ministry of Transport Malaysia, officiated the Meeting’s opening on 5 April, followed by a press conference at the Sama-Sama Hotel.

The Honorable Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai; Professor Wong, Director General, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS); Dr. Etienne Krug, Director, Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO; Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety; Mr. Marc Shotten, Program Manager, Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), World Bank; and Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation, offered valuable presentations, focusing on the importance of coordination and partnerships to foster concrete results.

There is significant evidence that road safety measures, including speeding interventions and use of helmets, seat belts, and child restraints have a big impact on the survival rate of road traffic victims. However, these interventions are not universally implemented everywhere.

NGOs are key partners in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 50% by the year 2020.

Alliance member NGOs are critical to tackling road carnage in multiple ways. They can activate communities to engage with the cause, identify local problems and speak up for the solutions. They can raise awareness by speaking out in the media and countering any local opposition to the implementation of road safety laws, policies and their enforcement, and provide valuable insights and information during government-led consultation processes, for example relating to road building or alternate sustainable mobility solutions. They also often provide support for road crash victims and knowledge-building programmes within institutions such as schools and companies.

The Global Meeting featured a prize-giving ceremony, including an award from FedEx to honor NGOs that exhibit commitment, engagement with the Alliance, and willingness to learn.  

The Declaration of Malaysia was signed on the final day of the Global Meeting by all participants. The Declaration states the commitment of the road safety community to implementing practical, evidence-based measures to improve road safety and post-crash response and calls upon all other stakeholders to partner meaningfully in these efforts.

Lotte Brondum, Executive Director, Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, said:

“People are dying on the roads. In some countries, for children to walk to school safely each day is a triumph of survival. We cannot stand aside and watch. We know the interventions that save lives. Last year the UN and its member states adopted a resolution to improve road safety. This resolution has strengthened our mandate. It gives Alliance members license to partner with their governments to implement the measures that work and to hold them to account. Ultimately, that means that more men, women, and children will return safely home every day”.

“The Alliance is the bridge between road safety NGOs and bilateral, and multilateral partners, such as WHO and the UN, both of whom we are fortunate to welcome as part of our Global Meeting program in Kuala Lumpur. We thank them and our sponsors: FedEx, the FIA Foundation, the Global Road Safety Facility, the Prudential Foundation, Dorel, Allianz and TM for enabling the Global Meeting to happen.”

Professor Wong, Director General, MIROS, said:

“The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research is committed to evidence-based approaches to road safety. We share the Alliance’s view that road safety interventions should focus on the activities that have been proven to save the most lives. We welcome this opportunity to be a part of the Global Meeting of NGOs Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims and to share our findings with the global road safety community.”

“The signing of the Malaysia Declaration demonstrates the importance of partnership between NGOs, governments, academia, corporations, and bi- and multilateral stakeholders to tackle the issue of road safety. For Malaysia, it is a strong sign that we take road safety seriously and that we are moving forward together.”

Dr. Etienne Krug, Director, Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO, said:

“Every day 3400 people die on the world’s roads. Urgent action is needed to implement well-known solutions like better laws and enforcement on speed, drinking and driving, helmets, seat-belts and child restraints, as well as improvements in roads, vehicles and post-crash response”, notes Dr. Krug. “NGOs have a crucial contribution to make, including by demanding more action by their governments. Through its convening power, the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety helps to amplify the voices of NGOs, increasing the likelihood that they result in real change in countries.”

Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety:

“Too many people lose their life unnecessarily in road crashes daily. We urge governments to strengthen their strategies to protect road users, including implementing the United Nations Road Safety Conventions.”

“As the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, I’m committed to work with all key players to significantly reduce the number of road traffic fatalities in the coming years. The Global Meeting has been a great opportunity to discuss with NGOs on how we can accelerate and enhance our efforts in this task. I congratulate the Malaysian Government for their collaboration and commitment to making roads safer.”

Mr. Marc Shotten, Program Manager, Global Road Safety Facility, World Bank said:

“Civil society can play a critical role in helping create major public policy changes. Evidence based solutions in which communities have been a part of the design have proven to be very effective. Fundamentally, partnerships between governments, NGOs and the corporate sector can help achieve sustainable solutions. We are pleased that the Global Alliance is building bridges and creating synergy among partners to help meet the challenge laid out under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets for road safety.”

Mr. Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation’s Executive Director said:

“You can sense there is real momentum and commitment here to halve road deaths by 2020. Can we achieve it? Only if the governments that signed up to the SDG targets put their money where their mouth is. So NGOs have a vital role to play in holding leaders to account, and ensuring there is focus and real delivery on safe infrastructure, minimum vehicle standards, reducing speed and ensuring safe school journeys, and enforcing the laws we know can save lives: drink driving, motorbike helmets, seat belts.”

Mr. Shane O’Connor, FedEx Communications Advisor, said:

“At FedEx, our road safety initiatives connect people to the opportunity to be safe on the road and have walkable neighborhoods. We are proud to collaborate with the Alliance as part of our FedEx Cares commitment to invest $200 million in over 200 global communities by 2020.  We congratulate all three award recipients for their efforts in road safety.”

Visit the Global Alliance of Road Safety NGOs website
See social media updates about #GlobalMeeting17 on Twitter