5th United Nations Global Road Safety Week

The Fifth United Nations (UN) Global Road Safety Week is being held from 6 May to 12 May 2019. The theme for weekly event in 2019 is “Leadership for road safety”.

About 5^th UN Global Road Safety Week 2019

• The UN Global Road Safety Weeks and its’ campaigns are coordinated by United Nations Road Safety Collaboration, chaired by World Health Organization (WHO).
• During the on-going global road safety week WHO released “Global Status Report on Road Safety”.
• As it is acknowledged that with a stronger leadership for road safety Global Goals could be achieved, so it launched action through ongoing campaign “Save Lives – #SpeakUp”.

About “Save Lives – #SpeakUp” campaign

• It operates on principles of ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020’. The Decade of Action seeks to prevent road traffic injuries and deaths which are projected to take lives of about 1.9 million people annually by 2020.
• It provides an opportunity for civil society to demand a strong leadership for road safety, particularly around evidence-based interventions that will save lives.
• It also inspires leaders to take action by displaying strong leadership for road safety within governments, private companies, NGOs, international agencies, schools and universities.

 Key Findings of Global Status Report on Road Safety: WHO

• All over the world Road accidents are leading cause of death among people in between 5years- 29years of age.
• Every year more than 1.35 million lives are lost and 50 million gets injured in road accidents.
• India’s Performance: Since 2008, India has maintained questionable distinction of being world number one in road crash deaths. In 2015, India became a signatory to Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety, where it committed to reduce 50% of its road crash deaths by 2020. But even after 2015, full scale of problem in India is still unacknowledged.
• As per Indian government data on road accidents, road crashes kill about 1,50,000 people each year. Although WHO report argues that numbers are understated and that India might be losing more than 2,99,000 people each year.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2019