Young people from more than 100 countries gathered at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, for the first ever World Youth Assembly for Road Safety and to mark the first UN Global Road Safety Week.
In the Youth Declaration for Road Safety agreed by delegates to the Assembly, all 400 young people commit to taking practical measures to improve road safety and call upon other young people to do the same. The delegates pledge to wear seatbelts and motorcycle helmets and to avoid speeding and drink-driving.
The declaration calls on all young people to "stand up and participate in local and national campaigns and programmes" and urges adults to do more: "We call upon you our parents and guardians, our heroes and mentors to serve as role models," says the introduction to the declaration.
The declaration also calls for more political will at national and community level to tackle road safety. It urges schools and universities to teach young people about safety, bartenders to serve alcohol responsibly, media to report more widely and more responsibly about the lack of road safety, and celebrities and the entertainment industry not to glamourize speed and to wear seatbelts and helmets.
Opening the meeting, WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan referred to the first death that resulted from a car crash, in 1896. On that occasion the coroner reportedly remarked that "this should never happen again". However, "today an estimated 1.2 million people lose their lives every year," Dr Chan said. "Focusing on youth is very appropriate. Youth has the energy and persuasive power needed to help address what we now know is the biggest killer worldwide of people aged 10-24 years."
Dignitaries making statements at the opening of the Assembly included Tony Blair, British Prime Minister. In his videotaped statement, Mr Blair focused on the costs of road traffic injuries, and how these add a particular burden to economies struggling with other competing issues. He stressed the parallels between efforts to achieve wider development goals and tackling road traffic injuries, noting the need for road safety to move up on the wider global development agenda.
The musician Moby noted the disproportionate reaction that road traffic crashes elicit: "They don't cause an outcry, or trigger a political reaction. Instead they 'just' destroy families, classes, friendships, and lives." He urged young people involved to ensure that the reach of this event is not short-lived: "Make it the beginning of something. The start of a global campaign…take control."
Bright Ambeyi recounted her personal experience as a road traffic victim in Kenya. Hit by a speeding vehicle in 1997, she was paralyzed from the waist down. "From a very active and social person, I had become invisible", she recounts, explaining how the inaccessible physical environment limited her ability to venture out. "I had lost the use of my limbs, lost privacy, lost self esteem… and I actually felt like I had lost myself."
Young people attending the event represented more than 100 countries, and are involved in a vast array of road safety efforts. Their experiences include programmes in Australia, China, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Zambia.
The meeting will lead to the creation of a global network of young road safety ambassadors who intend to conduct national and global activities. It is also expected that the declaration will be taken from country to country and be presented to national parliaments and disseminated widely to local media.
To mark the first UN Global Road Safety Week, from 23 to 27 April, hundreds of events are being organized around the world, including: