Geneva, 24 June 1999
ECE/TRANS/99/6
THIRD ROAD
SAFETY WEEK TO BE HELD IN THE YEAR 2000
Aim: to reduce
road accidents involving vulnerable road users
The week of 1 to 7 May 2000 has
been designated as the Third Road Safety Week in the UN/ECE
region. During that week, member countries of the Geneva-based
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) will
organize simultaneous road safety campaigns with the aim of
improving the safety of vulnerable road users.
Vulnerable road users include
pedestrians, cyclists, moped riders, motorcyclists and passengers
of these two-wheelers. Among these groups of road users,
children, the elderly, the disabled and young people are
particularly vulnerable. Vulnerable road users are more exposed
to the risk of accident than other road users, and when accidents
occur they have much more serious consequences for vulnerable
road users than for the others. Out of the 150,000 people killed
in road accidents in the UN/ECE region per year, an estimated 30
per cent, i.e. approximately 45,000 are vulnerable road users.
The common slogan for the Third
Road Safety Week is "PARTNERSHIP ON THE ROAD INCREASES SAFETY". This slogan seeks to draw attention to
the need for public administrations, the private sector and road
users themselves to become real partners if roads are to be made
safer, particularly for vulnerable road users.
As in the First and Second Road
Safety Weeks, held in 1990 and 1995 respectively, the programme
of the Third Road Safety Week foresees a number of activities to
be carried out at the national level by Governments and at the
international level by the UN/ECE as well as other international
organizations. The modalities of participation of Governments in
this campaign are flexible, depending on the specific road safety
situation in their countries, the specific public to be addressed
and the particular approaches or measures to be taken in each
country. In countries where road safety activities are carried
out at the national level on a regular basis, the Third Road
Safety Week will provide Governments with an opportunity to take
stock of and highlight the results of those activities. In other
cases, Governments and national organizations will use this
opportunity to initiate, with support from the UN/ECE, new
activities in order to raise awareness of the problem of road
safety of vulnerable road users in their countries and contribute
to alleviating this situation.
The UN/ECE, for its part, will
prepare a special brochure on the Third Road Safety Week and
publish and disseminate related information through press
releases and using the mass media to give the widest possible
publicity to the Week. The UN/ECE will also encourage its Member
Governments to launch national campaigns during the Third Road
Safety Week. International and non-governmental organizations
will also be invited to give support and contribute to the Week.
Furthermore, the UN/ECE intends to organize or sponsor special
seminars and workshops on the safety of vulnerable road users,
including one on assistance to the victims of road accidents.
Finally, the UN/ECE will develop
a special website for the Third Road Safety Week with links to
Governments and organizations involved in road safety activities
to facilitate the exchange of data and information on national
road safety campaigns and enable the sharing of experiences among
ECE member countries and organizations active in the field of
road safety.
It is expected that this event
will significantly contribute to the understanding of the
necessity of continued efforts to increase safety on our roads in
general, and to improve the safety of vulnerable road users in
particular.
For further information,
please contact:
José Capel Ferrer, Director
or
Jerzy Witkowski, Economic
Affairs Officer
Transport Division
United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
Telephone: (+41-22) 917 2400
or 917 3259
Fax: (+41-22) 907 00 39
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]