United Nations’ Decade of Action puts global road safety center stage

As I've said time and time again, our top priority here at DOT is safety.  And our commitment to helping Americans move safely from one place to another includes good laws, tough enforcement, public education, and innovative infrastructure design.

Over the years, these interconnected efforts have helped America develop a national traffic safety culture that’s paying off: last year, the number of traffic fatalities in America fell to the lowest levels since 1949.

And just yesterday, for example, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a tough ban on texting while driving.  That brings the total number of states banning texting behind the wheel to 32, plus Washington, D.C. and Guam.

But road safety isn’t just a local or national issue--it’s a global one.  On roads around the world, nearly 1.3 million people are killed each year and 50 million more are injured.  This means 3,500 people around the world are lost each day to traffic crashes.

That’s why DOT is so pleased to join dozens of governments and international organizations to launch the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

Administrator Strickland at the Decade of Action kick-off at the U.S. Capitol.

Yesterday, NHTSA Administrator David Strickland attended an event in front of the U.S. Capitol announcing the creation of this important initiative.  The U.N. General Assembly has set an ambitious goal for the decade: to stabilize and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world.  

We're talking about trying to save 5 million lives over the next 10 years.

All over the world, international leaders are committing to safety and kicking off national plans to make this goal a reality.  To symbolize the launch, national monuments in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw, Sydney, Moscow, Colombo, Geneva, and many others are illuminated with the road safety "tag" that symbolizes the Decade.

Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia gets tagged.

This isn’t the first time DOT has worked with the United Nations to promote global road safety.  They’ve also been important partners in our fight to end distracted driving.  Last year, I was proud to join U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as he issued a directive to more than 40,000 U.N. employees that barred them from texting behind the wheel while driving U.N.-owned vehicles.

And I am confident that the U.N. Decade of Action for Road Safety will be another successful partnership that will continue to save lives here in the U.S. and all over the world.


Comments

[Dan Shingleton]

Road accidents are one of the biggest blights for humanity - more than war and many diseases. One figure that gets overlooked is that one person around the world is killed or seriously injured in a road accident every SIX SECONDS. That's absolutely staggering! Anything that helps to cut this is to be welcomed.

[Jim Charlier]

This is great. But USDOT and the UN should pay attention to the difference between fatalities and personal injury accidents. Most fatalities are rural and many are single-vehicle accidents. It has been common practice for transportation agencies to claim safety benefits from urban street projects that in fact will not improve safety. Intersection widening and add-lanes projects generally do not reduce accidents. In fact, they often increase vehicle speeds and accident severity. 25 years ago, five-lane (TWLT) cross sections were avoided by engineers because they were unsafe. They are still unsafe but have become preferred designs for many state DOTs. Given the health impacts and other costs, an emphasis on traffic safety is overdue. But urban street safety issues cannot be addressed through a narrow focus on fatalities.

[Vincent Pearce, Surface Transportation Advisor, US Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan]

As a USDOT employee assigned overseas (Afghanistan), I would be very interested to know more about how USDOT will participate in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, and where funding might be obtained to help to implement this program in the nation that I am assisting. Thanks!

[Howard]

We all need to do everything we can to reduce accidents and increase safety. Recently, in order to reduce my auto insurance preimiums, I took a defensive driving class. Even though I always considered myself to be a safe driver, I was really surprised at how much the class increased my awareness of my driving habits and, hopefully, made me an even safer driver. It might be a good idea to require all drivers to take a defensive driving class every so many years.

[Auto Transport]

Great job! Roadway safety is *so important* and I'm glad to see it is still a main issue for the DOT whether here in the US or abroad - thanks for passing along this information!