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INTERNATIONAL

“My role is to advocate for more user, as a pedestrian, a cyclist, a motorcyclist, a
motor vehicle driver, a passenger transported
investment in road safety and to in public transportation or whatever.

draw attention to the death and And people in the low- and middle-income
countries where people are being transported
the injuries on the road around the in overcrowded buses or cars are particularly

vulnerable.
world...We do everything we can to
put road safety high on the agenda.” Do you think, overall, road safety is more a
concern for the Western countries than the
poor countries in Africa and elsewhere?
No, not at all. Some 90 % of the road accidents
occur in low- and middle-income countries.
It’s more than a job, it’s a mission, given to If you take Europe, and countries such as
me by the former United Nations Secretary- Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and
General Ban Ki-moon and reconfirmed by Canada, they have paid a lot of attention to
Antonio Gutierrez, the current Secretary- decreasing the number of road victims, which
General. You know, unfortunately, road is something very important. We have road
crashes are the number one cause of death safety standards. If you don’t observe them,
and injuries for youth between 5 to 29. Even you will not get results, no progress. It’s all
though you have your eyes wide open, you about education, law enforcement, standards
probably don’t know this, like many others. It’s and maintenance of vehicles, roads and
a silent pandemic. We speak about COVID, infrastructure and post-crash care.
we speak about climate change, but we never
speak about road accidents unless one happens What?
to somebody dear to us or it’s a big accident Post-crash care, which is the moment between
where there are, for example, 30 or more you being a victim on the road and you being
people in a bus who die. Then we hear about it rescued and taken to a hospital. This period
in the media. Unfortunately, every day, more is crucial. So now, on modern cars, you have
than 3,500 people die on the roads. A couple so-called E-call. The E-call means that, within
of weeks ago, I was in Ethiopia. I asked to 10 minutes, you get a rescue. Unfortunately,
visit the hospital dedicated to caring for road when you are in the developing world, it may
accident victims. It is a quite old hospital, and take hours. Obviously, attention to this in
I asked, “How many beds do you have?” The developed countries has been considerable,
answer was 210. Then I asked, “What is your and the results reflect that.
occupancy rate?” 110%. Can you imagine?
Then there are simple things like buckling a
My role, of course, is to advocate for more safety belt, wearing a proper helmet, respecting
investment in road safety and to draw the speed limit, not drinking and driving, not
attention to the death and the injuries on the using the phone while driving. So, immediately,
road around the world. That’s why I travel and if you paid attention to these simple things in a
why I campaign. We do everything we can to developing country, you could divide by two
put road safety high on the agenda. The good the number of victims. That’s a very simple
news is that solutions exists such as adhering measure with a huge result.
to the main UN conventions for road safety,
hosted by UNECE in Geneva ; adopting a safe And what do you think has been your main
system approach or promoting simple gestures achievement?
that saving lives. I will be very careful when talking about my
main achievement. What I am trying to do
Everybody forgets that the global population is – and there is still a lot to be done – is create
about 8 billion people, and each one is a road more awareness about these issues. People get

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