Robertson will lead new Road Safety Commission

Creation date: 31 March 2006

Former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson has been appointed the leader of the Commission on Global Road Safety. Established by the FIA Foundation, the Commission aims to drastically reduce the 1.2 million deaths and 15 million serious injuries caused by road traffic crashes worldwide each year.   

Each of the Group of Eight (G8) countries will be represented with one Commissioner, and a report addressing the next steps that the international community should take to promote global road safety will be published on June 8, 2006. More than 80% of the 3000 road deaths occurring every day on the world’s roads happen in developing countries. The report will examine how best to reverse this trend and prevent the further 65% increase in road traffic deaths predicted by the World Health Organisation by 2020 if no action is taken.

Next steps

The report will be sent to the G8 Heads of Government ahead of the 2006 G8 summit in St.Petersburg, Russia in July. It will also be submitted to the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration as part of the preparations for the 2007 UN Global Road Safety Week.

Commenting on his new role, Lord Robertson said: “Global road safety barely features on the international political agenda, yet it is a vital missing piece of the sustainable development jigsaw […] It is hoped that our work will raise the profile of the issue and set an agenda for practical action to reduce global road traffic injuries”.

For more information, visit http://www.fiafoundation.com/