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Johannesburg - Parliamentarians worldwide, including South Africa, are being urged to support action to meet the United Nation’s road safety goal - 50% fewer road deaths by the end of the decade. With 3500 people killed every day in traffic crashes, its Manifesto #4RoadSafety, issued by the global network for road safety legislators, highlights the measures that can help prevent this tragic waste of human life on the world’s roads, reports the UN.
Released during the 2017 UN Global Road Safety Week, the #4RoadSafety has been adopted by a cross party group of senior members of parliament from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Global Network for road safety legislator said: “With a UN target to halve road deaths by 2020 there has never been a stronger mandate for all countries to take action to stop the appalling daily carnage on our roads.
“Despite rising motorisation, better national road safety policies have helped to slow the rise in global road fatalities.
“To meet the UN target much more needs to be done and parliamentarians worldwide can play a decisive role by supporting our manifesto and the adoption and enforcement of laws that will make roads safe”.
Below is a snapshot of the state of South Africa's roads: World Health Organisation
Missed opportunity
MP's warn that based on present trends it is unlikely that the UN’s aim to halve road deaths by 2020 will be reached, describing such an outcome as “a tragic missed opportunity to apply known and effective policies to make roads safe”.
The Manifesto #4RoadSafety includes 10 key recommendations: List by the UN
Recommendation 1
UN decade of action for road safety and the sustainable development goals that parliamentarians worldwide give their full support to the Manifesto #4roadsafety and call on UN member states to urgently redouble their efforts in the decade of action for road safety to meet the SDG target to halve road traffic deaths and injuries by 2020.
Recommendation 2
Parliamentarians and road safety leadership that parliamentarians worldwide strongly support the development of effective road injury prevention programmes which apply best practice road safety laws supported by ambitious casualty reduction targets; that bi-partisan friends of road safety groups are established in national legislatures to support the UN decade of action and the road safety related SDGs; and that international parliamentary bodies such as the inter parliamentary union and the commonwealth parliamentary association include road safety in their activities supporting the SDGs and inter-parliamentary co-operation.
Recommendation 3
The safe system approach that parliamentarians worldwide encourage the adoption of the Safe system approach applied to their own countries priorities for road injury prevention with improved speed management serving as a critical overall policy instrument.
Recommendation 4
Road safety policy and legislative priorities that parliamentarians worldwide review their national road safety policies and legislation, support implementation of the recommended priority interventions from the WHO’s Save Lives technical package, and advocate for greater adoption and application of the UN’s road safety related transport conventions and agreements.
Recommendation 5
Road Safety at Work That Parliamentarians worldwide support policies that promote occupational road safety and to review their national laws and procedures to ensure that they are aligned with recommended international best practice, and to encourage the UN to develop a set of global guidelines for minimum regulatory standards for workplace road safety.
Recommendation 6
Good governance and road safety that parliamentarians worldwide support the application of good governance principles to national road injury prevention programmes and greater effort by the donor community to improve the accountability, transparency, and inclusiveness of their road safety projects.
Recommendation 7
Integrating road safety with sustainable transport policies that parliamentarians worldwide support the integration of road injury prevention with policies promoting sustainable development such as speed limits which will both reduce casualties and vehicle emissions and by prioritising non-motorised transport.
Recommendation 8
The role and policies of the multilateral development banks that parliamentarians worldwide encourage the MDBs, to strengthen their road infrastructure project evaluation procedures to ensure that traffic injury costs are fully identified; to apply a minimum ‘three star’ safety performance on all their road investments; and to update the road safety guidelines of their Joint road safety Initiative to be aligned with the world bank’s new environment and social framework.
Recommendation 9
Funding for road safety that parliamentarians worldwide support the provision of funding for road safety by endorsing the creation of a UN road safety trust fund, supported by innovative financing, and by ensuring adequate resources are allocated to national road injury prevention programmes.
Recommendation 10
Road safety target for 2030 that parliamentarians worldwide support at the end of the current UN decade of action, the adoption of a new SDG 3 target to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 using 2020 as a baseline.
