1000 YOUNG PEOPLE ARE KILLED EVERY DAY IN ROAD CRASHES 1000 YOUNG PEOPLE ARE KILLED EVERY DAY IN ROAD CRASHES
20 April 2007 - R L Polk & Co

Michael Schumacher and UK road safety groups join Tony Blair in calling for UN conference on global road deaths

Road deaths are becoming the new disease of the global young and poor warns the RAC Foundation and Make Roads Safe campaign today at the start of the first ever UN Global Road Safety Week in London (23).

Even in the UK which has one of the best road safety records in the world, 1,422 children were killed or seriously injured on the roads in deprived areas in 2005, making up almost 50% of all children killed or seriously injured. *

Globally road crashes are now the leading cause of death for young people aged 10-25, and over a thousand young people are killed on the roads every day according to the World Health Organisation. In the UK, 70 children – the equivalent of two full classrooms - are still being killed or seriously injured every week.

Each year road traffic crashes kill 1.2 million people, more than 90% of whom come from low and middle income countries. Worst affected are the poor and vulnerable road users. In the UK, for example, children in deprived areas are three times more likely to be hit by a motor vehicle.

The warning came as Michael Schumacher, seven times world champion and member of the Commission for Global Road Safety, joined UK road safety organisations to launch the Make Roads Safe campaign’s global petition, which is calling for a UN conference on global road safety, a demand endorsed in a video statement by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Michael Schumacher said:

“A thousand young people under the age of 25 die every day on the roads. Road crashes kill on the scale of Malaria or Tuberculosis, yet the international community has not woken up to this horrific waste of life. That is why I strongly support the Make Roads Safe campaign and the proposal that the United Nations organise a first ever UN ministerial conference to tackle this preventable loss of life”.

In a video statement recorded for UN Global Road Safety Week, Prime Minister Tony Blair said:

“Every minute of every day a child is killed or seriously injured on the world’s roads. Road crashes are the second leading cause of death for young men after HIV/AIDS, and in some African countries more than 70% of those killed on the roads are young breadwinners. It is becoming clear that road injury has a serious impact on the wider development goals we are all trying to achieve. So I commend the proposal that the UN should organise a global Ministerial meeting on road safety”.

Edmund King, executive director, RAC Foundation and a coordinator of the Make Roads Safe campaign said;

'' We must do more to make our roads safe at home and across the globe. Half of all children killed or seriously injured on the roads in England come from deprived areas and this is reflected in the fact that 90% of those killed globally are from low and middle income countries. The road safety community in the UK is united behind the call for a UN global ministerial conference to give urgently needed direction to road injury prevention.”

At the UK launch of the UN Global Road Safety Week the terrible facts about road injuries and young people are revealed**:

Road crashes are now the leading cause of death worldwide for 10-25 year olds;
1000 young people aged under 25 die on the world’s roads every day;
Worldwide, a child aged under 15 is killed or seriously injured every minute of every day;
96% of child road deaths occur in developing countries. By 2015 road crashes will be the main cause of death and disability for children aged 5-14 in developing countries – above HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis;
In the UK, 70 children – the equivalent of two full classrooms - are still being killed or seriously injured every week;
Half of all children killed or seriously injured on the roads in England come from deprived areas;
Children in deprived areas of the UK are three times more likely to be hit by a car;
UK children in Social Class V are five times more likely to die as pedestrians in a road crash than children from Social Class 1.
This week the international Make Roads Safe campaign officially launches a petition calling for the UN to act on road deaths, and aims to secure at least 1.2 million signatures – the number of people killed on the roads each year – by the time the UN General Assembly debates road safety in November. ENDS

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