World Health Day – how can you get involved?
By Adrian Walsh, director, RoadSafe

With nearly 1.2 million fatalities and over 20 million injured in road accidents each year, road safety is an issue of immense proportions. Over 75 per cent of these casualties occur in developing countries and countries in transition - though these countries account for only 32 per cent of all motor vehicles.

As most local road safety officers know, The World Health Organisation (www.who.int /world-health-day/2004/en) has designated World Health Day on 7 April 2004 to road safety. On this day under the title ‘Road Safety is No Accident’ there will be a call for action and events round the world to raise awareness of the appalling level of death and injury on the world’s roads.

0Adrian Walsh, director, 0RoadSafe

What action are we taking, and what can we in UK do to assist?
Road safety offers an opportunity for a wide range of stakeholders to actively engage in addressing the global problem of road accidents, deaths and injuries. Previous efforts by governments and donors to try to improve road safety in developing and transitional countries have had limited success and many interventions simply have not been financially or institutionally sustainable.

While it is really up to governments to take a lead in introducing strategies that will work in their own countries, there are many officials and non government organisations working to make things better in the developing world. What they often lack is information and inspiration; here the UK’s road safety professionals can really help.

The world may seem a big place from our offices and we may well be working flat out to make our own budget stretch to meet our local goals, but why should we not look a little further and perhaps exchange a few ideas with others from distant lands? Here are a few ideas showing how we in the business of road safety can help.

Join the World Road Safety Network
On 7 April RoadSafe will be announcing the UK launch of the World Road Safety Network (WRSN) at a conference being sponsored by DfT. One of the network’s directors, Peter ter Meulen, from The Institute of Traffic Care, Netherlands www.itctraffic.com, will be speaking and RoadSafe - which provides the secretariat for the network - will be seeking further membership from among the many road safety professionals attending.

The members of this growing network have committed themselves to invest their energy, knowledge and influence to improve road safety throughout the world, especially in developing countries.

By working together in partnership members believe that they will increase political and public awareness across the world, but most importantly provide ready access to advice and expertise from the developed world. This expertise can then be used by the developing nations where the threat of death and injury on the roads is at its greatest.

The initial goal of the network will be to support and encourage delivery of enforcement led road safety programmes and a web-based database is currently under development to support this initiative. If you have something to contribute or if you wish to have a look at what is happening in the developing world just log onto: www.wrsn.net.

Improve road safety in Europe
Would you be worried if you heard in the news that the whole population of Monte Carlo - approximately 40.000 people - had been killed? Would you mind if on this very same occasion in the region around Monte Carlo approximately 1.7 million people had been injured? Would you be angry if the European Union burnt 160 billion € - which corresponds to 160 per cent of its annual budget – every year?

You certainly would be!

But on Europe’s roads this scenario is real and most people accept it as if it were ordained by God! Road casualties, whether dead or injured, represent an annual cost to society amounting up to 160 billions of Euros. In human terms, across the 15 Member States there are about 40,000 fatalities and 1.7 million casualties annually.

Against the ubiquitous feeling that the tribute we pay every year for our mobility is not acceptable, in 2001 the European Commission came up with an ambitious target - to halve the number of road deaths by 2010. But road safety is not simply the responsibility of governments, politicians and professionals. Perhaps more than any other public issue, road safety is everybody’s business.

All road users, even if they are sticking to the rules, even if they are in a good physical and mental shape, even if they act predictably and responsibly, pose a potential danger for themselves and other road users. Thus, every road user is responsible for road safety.

Therefore the European Road Safety Action Programme has not only come up with measures for the European Community and the Member States to undertake, but also with the so-called European Road Safety Charter (http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/roadsafety/charter.htm). Through the Charter, every road safety stakeholder can contribute with a concrete commitment towards safer roads in Europe.

Twinning
However we also believe that it is timely to encourage the development of twinning links with cities and towns in Europe, notably the accession countries, to provide mutual assistance for road safety programmes.
Have you considered doing this in partnership with your own twin city or province – if not, why not get in touch and exchange ideas?

The opportunity of a really valuable exchange between professionals, with the potential to link engineering, educational and police professionals together, can provide a wonderful vehicle for extending the hand of friendship to countries close to home. And then, perhaps in partnership with them, to the accession countries of southern or eastern Europe where the infrastructure is less well developed and where the risk of road death and injury is even greater.

Join the 'seat belt marathon'
On 7 April hundreds of organisations around the globe will host events to help raise awareness of road traffic injuries, their grave consequences and the enormous cost to society.

They will also contribute to spreading the word that such injuries can be prevented. In Europe TISPOL (http://www.tispol.org) will be organising an enforcement campaign to promote the wearing of seat belts. Why not join hands with your twin town and share resources to promote this important issue?

Learn more about the problem in developing countries
You may also be interested to learn more about the Global Road Safety Partnership (http://www.grsproadsafety.org/), which aims to identify innovative ways to improve road safety by applying the business partnership approach. It hopes to produce solid evidence that partnerships offer win-win benefits for all parties and that this approach can be widely used throughout the world.

Adrian Walsh is a director of RoadSafe.

RoadSafe is a partnership of leading companies in the motor and transport industries in Britain, the government and road safety professionals. It aims to work together to further reduce deaths and injuries caused by road accidents, and to promote safer road use.

Roadsafe would be interested to hear what you are doing to help. Adrian Walsh can be contacted at Forbes House, Halkin Street, LONDON SW1X 7DS, 20 7344 9236, info@roadsafe.com.