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Ministers share strategies to cut road death 'epidemic'
Moscow (AFP) Nov 19, 2009 The fight against road deaths, an "epidemic" that costs the lives of 1.3 million people every year, should become a top global priority, experts and ministers said Thursday. Speakers at an international ministerial summit in Moscow condemned the "preventable" toll from road deaths worldwide, which they said would increase dramatically unless there is the political will for change. The "epidemic" of road deaths is only now being addressed at an international level, after being neglected or tackled only by individual countries, experts said. "It is obvious that there is no way to solve the problem on one's own, by means of one country," Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said at the opening of the global ministerial summit on road safety in Moscow. "We have the knowledge and the tools. The time has come to act swiftly and effectively. We owe it to the victims," said the Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze. Road accidents are set to cause 1.3 million deaths this year, most of them in countries with low to medium incomes, while 50 million people will be injured, organisers said. Developing countries pay a particularly heavy price, with road deaths causing the loss of obe to 3 percent of their GDP per year, organizers said. "Every year, a large city, a megapolis disappears from the map of the world," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a speech at the opening, acknowledging that Russia has a long way to go in tackling road deaths. A symbol of the global problem, a Kenyan woman, Casey Marenge, 26, told delegates the story of her accident six years ago. "I was told that I may never walk or use my hands again," she said, speaking from a wheelchair. "The pain caused to mothers who have lost their children or to families who have lost their breadwinners cannot be measured," Marenge added. The huge death toll comes as developed countries have reduced their road death rates through new approaches and technology, said Lord George Robertson, president of the Make Roads Safe campaign, which organized the summit. The campaign, launched in 2006 by British charity FIA Foundation, calls for road deaths to be recognised as a development and public health issue. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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