Nitin Gadkari leaves for Brazil to attend global conference on traffic safety

The conference is slated to be one of the most important discussions in the world on traffic safety, and aims to reaffirm the international community’s commitment towards reduction of traffic accidents that are responsible for 1.2 million fatalities every year.

One of the major objectives of the event is to review the progress made by countries in implementing the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, which aims to save five million lives on the planet through the adoption of policies, programs, actions and legislations to increase safety on the roads especially for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists .

The First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety was held in Russia in 2009.. Thereafter, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution for "Improving Global Road Safety", in 2014.

The resolution expresses a concern about the fact that only 7% of the global population is protected by appropriate traffic laws, which provide mandatory use of helmets, seat belts and protective devices for children in vehicles, prohibition of driving under the influence of alcohol, speed control and prohibition of the use of mobile phones while driving, including sending text messages, which are the five key-factors of risk on transit

According to WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013, 35 countries, accounting for nearly 10% of the world population, have passed laws tackling one or more of the five key-factors of risk between 2008 and 2011.

However the number of countries with comprehensive legislation about all five key-factors of risk remained constant at 28 (representing 7% of the world population, or 449 million people) since the last WHO report in 2009.

The goal of the Global Plan is that, at the end of the Decade of Action, the number of countries with comprehensive legislation on the subject increase by 50%.

The 2nd High Level Global Conference on Traffic Safety – Time of Results emerges from the UN resolution on “Improving Global Road Safety”.

Led by the World Health Organization (WHO) , the conference aims to strengthen the commitment of the international community around policies, legislations, measures and actions that can halt the factors that cause 1.2 million deaths worldwide and physical trauma to another 30 to 50 million people due to traffic accidents every year,. The fatalities primarily affect children and young people from 5 to 29 years, and young men are the main victims.

India, along with host country Brazil is one of the Friends of the Decade of Action for Road Safety - an informal group committed to the success of the global plan.

Others in the group are the Russian Federation, the United States, Spain, France, Australia , Argentina, Costa Rica, , Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Economic Commission for Europe, the Global Commission for Traffic Safety (linked to the International Automobile Federation) and the Global Security Partnership in Traffic (linked to the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent).