This week (6-12 May) is United Nations Global Road Safety Week, dedicated to raising awareness worldwide about road safety.
Did you know that every year an estimated 1.3 million people are killed in road accidents? Injuries on roadways are the number one killer of children and young people aged 5-29.
Unsafe roads and practices also take a heavy toll on the United Nations family– between 2009 and 2015, 91 United Nations personnel died in traffic crashes. That is more than double the number of UN staffers killed by acts of terrorism.
But we’re making progress. This past February, the UN launched a system-wide Road Safety Strategy aimed at decreasing road crashes involving UN vehicles. Director General, António Vitorino, of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is committed to implementing that road safety strategy within the organization, together with other UN agencies.
To mark the importance of road safety, IOM drivers and security officers based in Asia and the Americas are sharing messages of their experiences with you. In fact, each of us can be a leader on road safety by speaking up and demanding better policies, better vehicle maintenance, and better highway infrastructure as well as other technology that help save lives on the world’s roads.
Taking the UN’s 2019 theme, ‘Leadership for Road Safety,’ IOM drivers in their regions responded to the call to speak up, and recorded their messages on IOM’s innovative Community Response Toolkit. These are drivers and security officers who daily ensure safe and timely transportation of both IOM colleagues and IOM’s beneficiaries. Their stories explain why road safety is a critical issue for IOM, and how IOM staff members can drive positive change.
Continued progress on road safety starts with you. As an IOM staff member, report any road safety threats or risks in your duty station using the SCAAN app (available for iOS and Android). If you feel unsafe as a pedestrian, cyclist, driver or passenger at IOM, speak up by contacting your supervisor and security officer.
For more information on road safety, contact:
Ali Eren Guven, IOM Geneva. Tel.: +41 22 717 9891. Email: eguven@iom.int