NEW YORK, JUNE 30 – Ahead of today’s High Level General Assembly meeting on Improving Global Road Safey, the Italian Permanent Representative Maurizio Massari hosted a reception for Special Envoy Jean Todt and a group of supportive Member States. “Italy is fully committed to strengthen its multilateral engagement to implement the goals of the Second Decade Action on road safety”, said Massari.
“Nearly 1.3 million lives are claimed by road traffic accidents every year. As much as 3% of annual GDP in some countries is lost due to road accidents. And road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 year”, the President of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid said today opening the meeting: “In addition to the human suffering caused by road traffic injuries, they also incur a heavy economic burden on victims and their families, both through treatment costs for the injured and through loss of productivity of those killed or disabled. For this reason, SDG target 3.6 called for the halving of the number of road traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2020. Ensuring the safety of transport systems is also directly linked to SDG targets on sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13)”, Shahid added.
“This is unacceptable”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres remarked, and called on countries to take urgent action to reduce the biggest threats to road safety such as speeding; driving under the influence of alcohol or any psychoactive substance or drug; failure to use seatbelts, helmets and child restraints; unsafe road infrastructure and unsafe vehicles.
A Global Plan for the Decade of Action 2021 – 2030
A Global Plan for the Decade of Action 2021 – 2030 has been developed by WHO and the UN Regional Commissions, in cooperation with the UN Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) to guide Member States in the implementation of key actions to improve the safety of roads. The Global Plan emphasizes the importance of ensuring sustainable financing (short- and long-term) as well as the engagement of relevant actors from different sectors as critical factors for achievement of the 2030 target.
UN General Assembly resolution 74/299 “Improving global road safety” proclaimed the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030; established a target of reducing by at least 50%, the number of road traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030 and called for a High-level Meeting (HLM) of the UNGA on Road Safety in 2022 back-to-back with the high-level political forum on sustainable development. (@OnuItalia)
