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The UNECE Transport Division works with member Governments, other international organizations and
non-governmental organizations, to reduce the number and gravity of road accidents. To this end it
provides the secretariat to the Working Party on Road Traffic Safety (WP.1)
and promotes the development of internationally accepted Legal instruments
as well as
Recommendations and Resolutions
. The UNECE Transport Division also promotes
Road Safety Campaigns
aimed at raising the awareness of road users and the public at large about the importance of improving
road safety . The last major campaign was the
Third Road Safety Week
in the ECE region, which was held from 1 to 7 May 2000. Finally, it collects and disseminates
Road Accident Statistics
.
The Working Party on Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) is an intergovernmental body of experts from the ECE
member States and concerned international and non-governmental organizations, with experience in the
various aspects of road traffic safety.
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UNECE
provides a regional forum for Governments to develop conventions, regulations and
standards in a large number of transport areas. These serve to harmonize action and
facilitate exchanges between member countries by eliminating obstacles or simplifying
procedures. As such, ECE facilitates international trade, promotes the integration of its
member States at the regional and international level, helps protect the environment and
provides consumer guarantees of safety and quality.
 ECE currently has 55 member States,
including all western, central and eastern European States, the independent Central Asian
republics formerly part of the Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, and Israel.
Despite efforts made by Governments and
professional associations, the number of casualties as a result of road accidents remains
unacceptably high.
ECE statistics
show that in 1997
an estimated 164,677 people were killed and 6,118,844 were injured on the roads of the ECE
region. Clearly, this has an enormous human, social and economic toll on the world we live
in and ECE member Governments feel it is an important responsibility to do what they can
to improve that situation.
The
primary function of ECE in the area of road traffic safety is the elaboration and
management of legal instruments such as the 1968
Vienna Conventions on Road Traffic and Road Signs and Signals and the European Agreements
supplementing them. However, ECE is also a forum for the exchange of best practice and for
the joint development of non-legislative initiatives including the organization of
Road Safety Week campaigns.
The Working Party on Road Traffic Safety (WP.1)
is an
intergovernmental body of road safety experts from ECE member States which meets twice a
year in Geneva. The principal issues dealt with by the Working Party are the revision of
legal instruments on road safety such as those mentioned below. The Working Party also
examines and keeps up-to-date through constant revision a unique set of
road safety provisions contained in the Consolidated
Resolutions on Road Traffic (R.E.1) and on Road Signs and Signals (R.E.2). Another way
that the Working Party contributes to road safety in the ECE region is through the
collection and dissemination of information on national legislation and requirements in
such areas as speed limits and levels of alcohol permitted in the blood. The Working Party
also promotes the exchange of experience among its members.
The UNECE Working Party on Road Traffic Safety works in close collaboration with other
international governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the European
Union, the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, the International Federation of Pedestrians, the
International Road Transport Union, the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims and
the International Automobile Federation.
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