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UN chief calls for greater efforts to minimize traffic crashes

13 May 2011 01:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Many of the 1.3 million deaths in traffic crashes each year are avoidable, UN Secretary- general Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday, calling for the intensification of efforts to minimize the crashes on roads across the world, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Innovative plans need to be initiated to reduce the risks associated with traffic crashes, Ban said while taking part in an event on road safety with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as quoted by UN spokesman Martin Nesirky at a daily news briefing here.

The UN Road Safety Collaboration developed a Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety for the coming year, which aims to provide a roadmap to save 5 million lives between now and 2020.

"The plan focuses on the big risks: speeding, drinking and driving, and failing to use seatbelts, helmets and child restraints. It calls for better infrastructure. It also calls for innovation," Ban said at the event.

In his speech, Ban commended Bloomberg for his "dramatic efforts" to make New York City’s streets and highways safer for drivers and their passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

The UN chief thanked the mayor for his 125-million-U.S.-dollar gift two years ago for road safety projects in 10 low- and middle- income countries, the categories of countries that account for nearly half of all road deaths.

Governments around the world are holding public events this week and unveiling national safety plans as they kick off the Decade of Action, which the UN World Health Organization (WHO) hopes will provide the necessary spur for a united response to the problem.

Road accidents represent the ninth leading cause of death in the world today and are already the biggest killer of people aged between 15 and 29. Between 20 million and 50 million others receive non-fatal injuries every year, according to the UN.