Young Road Users in the UN Spotlight
Geneva, 17 April 2007 -- Over 300 young people 18-24 years old
representing about 100 countries will gather in Geneva on 23 and 24 April 2007 for a World Youth Assembly on Road Safety.
Following a UN General Assembly model, young people will discuss how best
the safety of young road users can be achieved. They will also adopt a declaration
aimed at raising the awareness of their peers, policy makers, parents, teachers
and the media, about the daily tragedy on the roads, of which young people
are the victims.
The World Youth Assembly will be the central event of the First United Nations
Global Road Safety Week (23-29 April 2007), jointly organized by the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Regional Commissions, and targeted at
young road users, including young drivers.
“Modelled on the previous UNECE Road Safety Weeks, the first Global
Road Safety Week will provide UN Member States with a common framework for
launching simultaneous national and local road safety campaigns, aimed at
improving the safety of young road users and road safety in general”,
said José Capel Ferrer, Director, Transport Division, United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe.
Road accidents are a major cause of death for young people aged 5-24 years.
Young drivers are prone to overestimate their own capabilities as well as
those of their vehicle, and despite numerous campaigns, they continue to pay
a heavy toll in road accidents, especially at weekends.
Statistics show that young people are over-represented in road accidents.
Young people from 18-24 years represent about 10% of the population but 25%
of those killed in road accidents around the world1.
In the UNECE region2 alone
more than 29,000 between the ages of 0-24 years are killed every year on the
roads.
But the First UN Road Safety Week also aims to improve road safety in general.
In Western Europe the long-term trends are quite positive. In the past 30-40
years, on average, the number of people killed on the roads per year has been
halved, while road traffic has increased by a factor of 4.
As a pioneer international organization in the area of road
safety, the UNECE has contributed to this achievement. It has done so through
the development of uniform regulations for the various components of road
traffic, firstly for the road user through harmonized traffic rules, signs
and signals, but also for vehicles and the road infrastructure itself.
However, still in 2004, about 104,000 people were killed on European
roads. There are large disparities in the distribution of road deaths and
injuries in countries and groupings of countries. Relative to the number
of vehicles registered, the number of fatalities in the new EU-12 countries
was about 3 times higher than in the EU-15. But where the situation is
the worst is in the CIS countries where such ratio is about 10 times higher
than in the EU-15.
Bad roads and old unsafe vehicles can be considered to be still major
causes for such high numbers of victims in these countries. However, in
all countries, studies have shown that incorrect human behaviour is the
main cause of accidents. Excessive speed, driving under the influence of
alcohol or drugs, and users not wearing safety belts or helmets are the
main behaviour related risk factors in road deaths and injuries.
Improving behaviour requires, not only appropriate safety rules, but
also the political will to respect them and to have them respected, adequate
training and education, and information campaigns.
“The results achieved in Western Europe prove something which is
very important: that road accidents can be prevented and lives saved. This
should not lead us to complacency, but on the contrary, to redouble our
efforts to save more lives. I hope that the First UN Global Road Safety
Week will be a major step in this direction”, added Mr. José Capel
Ferrer.
For further information see: www.unece.org/trans/globalroadsafetyweek or
contact:
José Capel Ferrer, Director, or
Marie-Noëlle Poirier
UNECE Transport Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 2400, 917 3259
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0039
E-mail: [email protected]
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1 In the UNECE region these
percentages are 7% and 17% respectively.
2 The UN Economic Commission
for Europe comprises 56 countries, including all European countries, the
Commonwealth of Independent States and North America.
Ref: ECE/TRANS/07/P03