Monitoring the Decade of Action for Global Road Safety 2011–2020: An update

Abstract

The United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) was set up in 2004 in response to the recognised need for the United Nations (UN) system to encourage efforts to address the global road safety crisis. In 2010, the UN General Assembly Resolution 64/255 declared 2011-2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety with the overarching goal of stabilising and reducing the forecasted number of road traffic deaths by increasing activities at national, regional and global levels. In 2011, a Plan of Action for the Decade of Action, a tool to support the development of national and local plans of action, was launched. Countries are encouraged to implement activities according to the five pillars set out by the Plan of Action. The UNRSC, tasked to evaluate the overall impact of the Decade, developed and populated indicators for each pillar. Currently, 36 of 38 proposed indicators are populated by baseline data for 2010 from the second Global status report for road safety. However, gaps exist in data quality and availability on a global level. Therefore, there is an urgent need for improving data quality and availability to measure the progress of the Decade of Action.

Parental knowledge and beliefs on the use of child car restraints in Singapore: a qualitative study

“…Road traffic injuries represent a significant public health issue. (1)(2)(3) Accidental injury is the main cause of paediatric death in the United States, with road traffic accidents being the leading cause of injury. (4) Child car restraints (CCRs) are shown to lower the risk of injury by up to 82% and risk of death by 28% compared to seat belts.…”

Measurement is not enough for global road safety: implementation is key

“…3 Fourth, the fact that these reports have been published over time allows the global community to track the progress of road safety efforts over the past decade. 4 The current report shows that numbers of deaths from road injuries have not been majorly reduced since the first report, and that increasing numbers of people, especially young people, have continued to die across low-income and middle-income countries since the year 2000. 1,2 Although there are specific locations where road injuries have been reduced and successful case studies are quoted, the widespread change needed has not happened.…”

State of pedestrian road safety in Uganda: are interventions failing or absent?

“…We identified 3 categories that explained the state of pedestrian road safety in Uganda. Similar codes were categorised under the pillars contained in the global plan for the UN Decade of Action of road safety and they included a) Road safety management, b) Safer roads and mobility and c) safe road users (15, 16)…”

“…The finding has implications for establishment of a formal mechanism to guide intervention design and implementation. There is need to monitor and evaluate intervention effectiveness using credible data sources as well as to document and disseminate good practices in the reduction of pedestrian injuries(15, 20).…”

“…This is contrary to high income countries that have political commitment and dedicated institutional effort to manage road safety (23). Dealing with pedestrian RTIs can be achieved through concerted efforts at national level(15). Achieving national pedestrian safety management requires political and economic commitment that is demonstrated through effective institutional leadership within responsible agencies for road safety(1, 23).…”