Sorry, I don't have a URL. Got this as a press release for some reason, but thought it might be of interest.
Road deaths 'missed' in Millennium Development Goals
News release
For immediate release 14 September 2010
Failure to include road deaths in the Millennium Development Goals framework is resulting in millions of unnecessary deaths and increased poverty, a new report from the FIA Foundation warns today (14).
As world leaders prepare to meet in New York for the MDG summit, a leading UN development adviser, Dr Kevin Watkins from the Global Economic Governance Programme, Oxford University, warns that while the world rightly focuses on MDG goals including saving the lives of children under five, the international community risks ignoring hundreds of thousands of children of school age who are being killed or injured on dangerous roads.
Dr. Watkins said:
"It doesn't take rocket science to work out that primary school kids should not be crossing six-lane highways to get to school. Likewise setting targets for cutting mortality rates among children aged up to five and then turning a blind eye to road deaths, one of the biggest killers of five to 14-year-olds, is not just irrational, it is ethically indefensible."
'The Missing Link - road traffic injuries and the Millennium Development Goals' will be presented to a high level meeting at next week’s UN MDG Summit in New York. The report reveals the true scale of the road injury epidemic in developing countries, and the impact poor road safety is having on delivery of the MDGs:
· 3500 people are killed every day on the world's roads and developing countries account for 3,000 of these deaths. This is forecast to rise to 5700 a day by 2020.
· 133,000 children of primary or early secondary age are killed on the roads of developing countries each year - another million are seriously injured. One of the MDG goals is to achieve universal access to primary education.
· Road crashes cost developing nations at least £100 billion a year. The report estimates at least 70 million people are stuck below the poverty line as a result. One of the MDG goals aims to reduce extreme poverty.
The UN has begun to recognise the dangers of the road death crisis, announcing a 'Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020' with 100 governments already committing to work to reduce road deaths by 2020, an objective that could potentially prevent 5 million deaths. Yet campaigners argue that until road injuries are recognised as a global killer on the scale of HIV/AIDS or Malaria, the issue will continue to be neglected and underfunded.
Lord Robertson, Chairman of the FIA Foundation’s Make Roads Safe campaign said:
"The UN has recognised that road traffic injuries represent a global public health crisis that, left unchecked, will hinder progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The international community now needs to wake up and make a real commitment during the Decade of Action for Road Safety to save millions of lives."
Notes to editors
'The Missing Link - road traffic injuries and the Millennium Development Goals' which is authored by Dr. Kevin Watkins for the FIA Foundation’s Make Roads Safe campaign will be presented to the UN MDG Summit in New York on 22 September 2010. This event will also see the launch of the official symbol for the worldwide Decade of Action for Road Safety. Visit http://www.makeroadssafe.org for copies of the report.
The FIA Foundation is an independent UK registered charity which manages and supports an international programme of activities promoting road safety, environmental protection and sustainable mobility. The Foundation runs the Make Roads Safe campaign which has successfully called for a UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, due to begin next year.
Contact:
Avi Silverman FIA Foundation
+447967229374
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