Road visitors injury is the eighth top trigger of death amongst all ages in the area and the second top trigger of death amongst adolescents and young adults aged 15-29 years, following collective violence. The fifth United Nations Global Road Safety Week, beneath the theme ‘Leadership for road safety’, is becoming marked from May six-12. This significant worldwide campaign was requested by the United Nations General Assembly in April 2018.
Road safety continues to be a grave public health and improvement issue globally and in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The worldwide status report on road safety 2018 shows that road visitors crashes claim around 1.35mn lives across the globe each year. An extra 20–50mn folks are injured annually, with numerous sustaining permanent disabilities.
Road safety can’t be enhanced with out sound leadership. Leadership is important to accomplish road safety targets, which includes Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to decrease road visitors deaths and injuries by 50 per cent to offer access to protected, cost-effective, accessible and sustainable transport systems.
Leadership at all levels of society is important to driving modify, raising awareness and creating demand amongst all stakeholders. Road visitors injury prevention and handle is a public health priority for WHO at the regional level, and a important element of the organisation’s new vision for the area, Vision 2023, which calls for solidarity and action.
Road visitors injuries and deaths are largely preventable via the adoption of a protected program strategy to address distinct elements of road safety and the implementation of proof-primarily based interventions that have verified productive in numerous nations. Along this line, the WHO Save Lives technical package calls for action to address speed management, leadership, infrastructure design and style and improvement, automobile safety requirements, enforcement of visitors laws and post-crash survival.
In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, leadership options undertaken by nations contain establishing an agency to spearhead road safety, building a road safety method, evaluating the effect of road safety methods, harmonising and enhancing road visitors injury information, and raising awareness and public help.
To demonstrate its leadership in road safety, WHO has created a extensive, Road Safety and Vehicle Management Policy. Among numerous other initiatives planned throughout Road Safety Week, WHO offices which includes the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean will host numerous activities to help implementation of the policy.
Leadership for road safety will be an essential theme throughout the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, to be hosted by the Government of Sweden in Stockholm from February 19-20, 2020.
Information Source: Muscat Daily