The first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety kicked off today in Moscow, Russia. The conference is expected to culminate in the Moscow Declaration, with ministers of 70 countries calling for “a decade of action” on road safety. The goal is to stabilise and then reduce the number of road deaths expected globally by 2020.

 

On signing the declaration tomorrow, governments, United Nations agencies, civil society organisations and private companies will agree to set “ambitious yet feasible” targets for reducing traffic casualties in each country.

 

The meeting is “long overdue”, according to the opening speech read to delegates on behalf of the UN Director General, Ban Ki-Moon. Latest estimates suggest that 50 million people are injured on the world’s roads each year, in some cases ending up permanently disabled. Almost 1.2 million people die annually as a result of road crashes, with most deaths occurring among vulnerable road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians.

 

People living in less developed countries are hit disproportionately, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 90% of road deaths occur in developing countries, which are home to less than 50% of motor vehicles registered globally.

 

The global burden of disease from road crashes looks set to rise further over the coming decade, with the WHO estimating a 65% rise in road fatalities and serious injuries by 2020. To tackle the problem by making roads safer, the Moscow Declaration advocates the “Safe Systems” approach. This system focuses on four elements: encouraging people to use roads safely, making roads and roadsides less dangerous, and promoting travel at lower speeds and in well-maintained vehicles.

 

The history of the Safe Systems strategy is traced in a perspective article due to be published in the Emerging Health Threats Journal. In the article Lori Mooren and Raphael Grzebieta, from the Injury Risk Management Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, explain how the strategy, already adopted by Australian authorities, takes human errors into account when putting road safety measures in place.

 

The system requires the entire road-traffic management system to be designed around compensating for the errors of road users, so that people can survive the consequences of their mistakes, explain Mooren and Grzebieta.

 

“Simple measures such as introducing and enforcing compulsory helmet and seat belt laws can make a large difference in the trauma that comes with motorisation,” they write.

 

Only 40% of countries currently have motorcycle laws that stipulate helmet use for the rider and passenger, according to the WHO. Fewer than 60% of countries have laws in place to ensure that seatbelts are worn in the front and back of cars.

 

Vietnamese authorities made helmets a legal requirement of motorcycle use in December 2007, saving an estimated 1000 lives in 2008, say Mooren and Grzebieta.

 

Society has the scientific and technological capabilities to “effectively eliminate” road injury, argue the authors. “What is needed is a concerted effort to develop a global culture of road safety — one that embraces the Safe System principle no matter the stage of economic and road infrastructure development in a particular country.”

 

To mark the occasion of the conference, Bloomberg Philanthropies yesterday pledged US $125 million over five years for global road safety efforts. The funds will go to several organisations, including the WHO, supporting efforts to reduce drink-driving, increase the use of seatbelts, child restraints and motorcycle helmets, limit vehicle speed, and strengthen care for trauma.