Russian Federation

Country Summary

Roughly 26,000 people die each year on the roads in the Russian Federation. This alarming figure is one of the central reasons the Russian government is participating in RS-10, an international road safety project supported by the Bloomberg Foundation. The RS-10 project augments the federal government’s previous commitment of USD 2 billion in road safety programme funding for 2006 through 2012. The objective: to enact tougher laws, increase penalties for violating traffic rules, and roll-out education and mass media campaigns that aim to reduce the number of deaths on the roads by 33 per cent by 2012.

The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) played a vital role in taking the investments forward, by establishing partnerships between private-sector companies, local administrations and civil society, garnering interest in working together to improve road safety in Russia.

As a result, in 2010, the province of Lipetsk became the second region in the Russian Federation after Sakhalin where GRSP played a role in setting up and developing a new partnership, and supporting a major campaign to promote seat-belt use.

Through RS-10 in Russia, GRSP used a diverse approach to addressing road safety issues including law enforcement, infrastructure, data collection and public campaigns. At a workshop in Lipetsk in October 2010, local road safety partners discussed and were trained in best-known international practices on road safety, and worked to develop a common approach to campaigns focused on the use of seat-belts and speeding.

The seat-belt campaign, titled "Do not break the life line!", implemented with several partners including the World Bank and the World Health Organization, has made the region of Lipetsk a spring board for a serious improvement in road safety on Russian roads, implementation of new approaches and fostering new partnerships.

Sakhalin

While the Lipetsk Administration just started its partnership approach in the region, the road safety partnership in Sakhalin in the Russian far east marked its 5th Anniversary. The Sakhalin programme recognizes the need to work across diverse disciplines and sectors in order to reduce the number of road crashes, injuries and fatalities. The partnership includes representatives of the Sakhalin Administration, road traffic police, business and civil society organisations. The GRSP projects have aimed to improve road-user behaviour, encourage seat-belt use, correct dangerous black spots where crashes often occur, enhance emergency or pre-hospital care with on-going training, and develop safe-routes-to-school programmes with local schools.

I have seen a lot of tragedies on the road and analysed many of them as an observer. This international project (RS-10) forced me to look at road crashes from inside putting forward both individual vulnerability and responsibility for our lives and the lives of all those who are with us on the road.

– Vladimir Parakhin, senior road police inspector from Lipetsk