Two and a half years ago, I was asked what it was that I felt was holding back the global road safety movement. “Fragmentation and lack of investment”, I said, “and it’s the fragmentation that causes the lack of investment, so all we really need to do is create alignment!” Two years on, and with…
In observance of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on November 21, the citizens of Lipetsk fixed 232 white balloons in the city square, also marking the beginning of a mass public campaign promoting the use of seatbelts. The campaign was a culmination of efforts undertaken by a consortium of international partners from…
In a quiet room in São José dos Campos’ central city hospital, a 28-year-old patient recuperates from a broken leg. A few days earlier, a drunken motorbike driver struck him as he was working with a roadway repair crew. “Safety measures are there, but they need to be increased,” the patient says, adding that he’d…
On a typical night, Van Chansophal, a 34-year-old who works in the private sector in Phnom Penh enjoys meeting his friends to drink beer after work. “Normally, I drink eight or more cans of beer at one time. I like going out to drink until I am deeply drunk. Then I stop drinking and come…
When the Decade of Action for Road Safety officially gets rolling in May 2011, Asia will be ready. That was the goal of the 8th annual GRSP Asia Road Safety Seminar in November, which focused on planning for the Decade of Action as an effective means of reducing road trauma in the region. A well-known…
Two Brazilian cities engaged in GRSP’s Proactive Partnership Strategy have won the prestigious Volvo Road Safety Award – the reward given as a high recognition of excellence for professionals and communities in Brazil for effective road safety practices. Winners of the 18th Volvo Road Safety Awards were announced in September. Porto Alegre, capital of the…
The Road Safety Conclave 2010, “Moving towards a Comprehensive and Integrated Approach”, was an important step taken by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to provide a national platform for achieving a coordinated approach to road safety. Co-sponsored by GRSP, the Conclave was attended by more than 250 participants from the road industry, the government…
Paying tribute to those killed in road crashes and taking a united stand to reduce road deaths were among the key themes of an international conference organized by the Polish Government just after the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on 22 November. In 2009 alone, 4,572 people were killed in road crashes…
On the walking bus, feet replace tires. Children do not sit, they walk in pairs behind an adult “driver” who leads the route between school and home. The walking bus is used by millions of children around the world each day. It is a method of transport which promotes physical exercise, supports efforts for a…
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…
At a service station on a national highway in South Africa’s Guateng province, five men in wheelchairs wait for the next customer to pull in for a quick fill-up. Wearing bright orange bibs, holding clipboards and approaching motorists with a friendly smile, they appear to be members of a club or a group of some…
Set up vehicle stabilization! Can you tell me where you are in pain? Let me know if the condition changes! Make sure that her head does not move! What is the entrapment? We’ll need four of us to remove the roof! If that does not work we go to plan B! Short and clear questions,…
Representatives of the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) met with road safety stake holders in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria in August 2010 to discuss the establishment of a national road safety partnership between the public sector, (led by the Nigerian Federal Road Safety Commission), private sector organizations and civil society. The 2009 WHO Global Status…
Young people interested in road safety are at the heart of an 18-month project that aims to jump-start transport research into speed management. The STARS project, as it’s called, encourages students around Europe to run a local speed-management action to reduce speeding through infrastructure projects or communication projects (awareness campaigns, etc.). STARS is developed by…
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. “On behalf of the Global Road Safety Partnership and the European Union project for the Integration of Ukraine into the Trans-European Transport Networks…
