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 Governments members 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.