News
Road safety for the people (26-08-2010)
Ibrahim Osman first realized the full extent of the road safety crisis 12 years ago while working on the 1998 World Disasters Report, the yearly chronicle of humanitarian crises published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). That year, the report identified road safety as a leading global killer and a man-made humanitarian disaster in need of urgent attention. Ten years later, this key founding GRSP partner is still a strong road safety advocate. GRSP News recently caught up with Osman, just before his retirement as IFRC's Deputy Secretary General
Radar equipment donated from Australia will help improve road safety in Ukraine (10-08-2010)
The beginning of a new road safety campaign in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine coincided with the handover of five speed-detection radars from the Queensland Police Service (QPS) in Australia.
Cambodian team hits the Australian highway as part of RS-10 capacity building project (09-08-2010)
You cannot miss it. The last thing you want to see on your way home from an after-work drink with your office mates. A Victoria Police "Booze Bus", parked on the shoulder of a nondescript highway off-ramp with its flashing lights and customized floodlight illuminating a cold Melbourne night.
A safe-driving tour through the eyes of GRSP Hungary’s new president (08-08-2010)
In April this year, 40-year-old Balázs Tokár was elected president of GRSP/Hungary. A representative for Shell on the GRSP Hungary board since 2007, he has been involved in a number of joint projects within GRSP, including "Traffic playground" with a mini Shell station that is still operational in Budapest and used by local school classes. "Interestingly," he says, "when we were opening the playground back in 2008 - a troublesome political time for Hungary - representatives of all opposition parties from the local administration were present at the ceremony. This is proof that road safety does not know political borders and is vital for all who bear social responsibility." GRSP's Rita Plotnikova caught up with the energetic and enthusiastic Tokár for an interview about road safety in Hungary.
Annual Meeting In Brazil Highlights Results of Proactive Partnership (03-06-2010)
More than 100 people from around the world came to Rio de Janeiro as part of activities surrounding GRSP’s annual general meeting in June. The venue was the Challenge Bibendum, the biggest international event in the automobile industry, of which GRSP was a leading road-safety participant.
The Global Road Safety Partnership welcomes a new member: Sesame Workshop (26-04-2010)
Sesame Workshop, the producers of the global educational brand, Sesame Street, joined the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) in a move to contribute its educational media expertise to the worldwide effort to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities among children and families.
UN calls for ‘Decade of Action’ for road safety (01-04-2010)
Calling the global road safety crisis "a major public health problem" with a "broad range of social and economic consequences," the 64th General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution March 2 proclaiming 2011-2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety.
PrintDrinking and driving dips in two Chinese cities after the multi-sector involved project (29-01-2010)
Levels of drinking and driving declined significantly in two cities where the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) together with a multi-sector team of government agencies and business organizations conducted a four-year drinking and driving project (2006-2009).
The cooperative effort includes baseline surveys, public education campaigns, enhanced enforcement and outcome evaluation. Three Chinese cities were involved in the project: Nanning and Liuzhou in Guangxi Province (intervention cities) and Changsha in Hunan Province (control city).
The post-intervention survey shows that after the six months of combined activities of public education and enhanced enforcement, the drinking and driving rate declined significantly at the two intervention cities in Guangxi Province - from 6.8% to 0.9% in Nanning, and from 6.9% to 2.2% in Liuzhou.
The proportion of drink-drivers involved in the severe road crashes dropped from 17.6% to 14.6% in Nanning and from 34.5% to 22.6% in Liuzhou. The rate of drink-drive related severe road crashes was reduced from 25.7% to 20.5% in Nanning and from 48% to 28.8% in Liuzhou. In the control city of Changsha, where no intervention activities occurred, all the numbers were increased.
The results were announced at Xiyuan Hotel in Beijing during a January 14 reporting session hosted by GRSP, the World Health Organization, and the Health and Human Resource Development Center (HHRDC) of the Ministry of Health (MOH) - the key Chinese partner of the project. Roughly 70 people from government agencies, international organizations, business and the media attended the event.
The reporting session was chaired by Dr. Zhang Junhua, Assistant Director General of HHRDC. Mr. Zhang Li, Deputy Council of Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Health (MOH), Mr. He Yong, Director General of Transport Consultant Ltd. of Research Institute of Highway (RIOH), Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Dr. Cris Tunon, Senior Programme Management Officer of WHO gave keynote speeches.
A project introduction was given by Ann Yuan, GRSP Country Manager for China in order to give the participants a better understanding on the background, activities and outcome of the project. The presentation showed in detail of the methods, activities and outcomes during the entire process of the project, which include baseline survey, intervention and evaluation. The key messages of the importance of multi-sector collaboration and evidence based decision making were got across to the participants at the meeting.
Right after the presentation, a Q & A session was followed. The panelists were the front line people - representatives from Clarity Public Relations and the local partners from Nanning, Liuzhou and Changsha including both the traffic police and health sector. The discussion was warm and lively. Variety of questions raised by the participants related to:
- Is the current drinking and driving related law effective enough and how can it be effectively enforced?
- How is the relevant data recorded by traffic police during their routine law enforcement work?
- What is the difference of the GRSP project to the routine work of the traffic police in terms of method and outcome?
- What kinds of suggestions come out from the project that can be made to the relevant government institutions?
- How should the drinking and driving initiative become long term?
The project was supported in part by the Global Road Safety Initiative (GRSI), a member of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration. GRSI also supported the translation of the global good practice manual on drinking and driving into Chinese.
More information please contact:
Ann Yuan
GRSP Country Manager for China
c/o International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Regional Delegation for East Asia
4-1-61, Jianguomen Wai
Diplomatic Compound
Beijing 100600, P.R. China
Tel.: 8610-6532-7162 ext. 34
Fax.: 8610-6532-7166
Mobile: 8613910924316
e-mail: ann.yuan@ifrc.org
website: GRSProadsafety.org
GRSP joins in regional road safety programme in Northern Poland Region (19-01-2010)
The Road Safety Council of the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Region in Poland has invited the Global Road Safety Partnership-Poland to join their ambitious and comprehensive road safety program, which aims to reduce road deaths and accidents over the next three years.
Ministers join call for Decade of Action (21-12-2009)
Government ministers from 70 countries gathered in Moscow for the first-ever Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in November and pledged to gear up road safety efforts and formally ask the United Nations to declare 2011-2020 the "Decade of Action for road safety."