Team to Champion UN's Road Safety Initiative

Posted on Tuesday 14 Jul 2009 and tagged with Moscow.

The AT&T Williams team and Kazuki Nakajima will, for the second year in succession, be taking to the streets of Moscow for a city centre Formula One event, with the city’s iconic Red Square, Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin  providing a spectacular backdrop to a 4.3km demonstration route this weekend. As much as entertain an enthusiastic Muscovite crowd which numbered in the thousands last year, the team will be actively promoting the first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which will be hosted in Moscow on 19-20 November 2009. The team’s race car will carry the conference’s identity prominently as part of the team’s race car livery, together with the Make Roads Safe logo.

Each year approximately 1.3 million deaths occur on the world’s roads, a toll comparable to malaria and tuberculosis in fatalities alone. Yet the burden of unsafe roads is far greater; with severe disabling injuries affecting an additional 20 to 50 million people each year. More than 85% of all fatalities and injuries occur in the developing world. Tragically, children are often the victims particularly in low and middle-income countries. Road traffic fatalities are the number one killer of children aged 10-24, and 96% of these children are dying on roads in developing nations. The trend is predicted to get worse with the rapid motorisation that accompanies development. Road traffic crashes consume 1-2% of GNP for most countries. Although this is a global epidemic, there is no coordinated global response and many developing nations lack the capacity to prevent these preventable deaths and injuries.

UN Resolution 62/64 is the first co-ordinated bid to tackle this wholly preventable epidemic, by calling for the first high-level global conference on road safety under the auspices of the UN. Russia has taken the initiative to host the first global conference at ministerial level, with a clear ambition to make a positive global impact on road safety.

Williams F1 has identified road safety as one of three areas where it can and will contribute more broadly to society. The team is working closely with the FIA Foundation and the Commission for Global Road Safety to help communicate and motivate road safety initiatives. The FIA Foundation, originally endowed by the FIA with $300 million from its Formula One television rights, has been a prime mover in calling for concerted and pan-national action on road safety through its Make Roads Safe campaign. Formula One offers many examples of good practice in relation to injury prevention. Despite driving at high speed and in a competitive context, accidents and injuries in Formula One are by comparison, rare, thanks to a highly developed preventative safety environment.

General Victor Kiryanov, Head of Road Safety in the Russian Federation Ministry of the Interior and member of the Commission for Global Road Safety said, “The Ministerial Conference is planned to focus on a comprehensive discussion of global road safety and its influence on the socio-economic development of countries and their attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. In particular, it is planned to review the progress of countries’ implementation of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and to determine ways to step up international co-operation.”

Frank Williams, Williams F1’s Team Principal said, “I am delighted to be returning to Russia and personally take a great deal of interest in our mission not only to help develop interest in Formula One in Russia, but we are this year entrusted as envoys of a critical message about road safety. This is a subject that I, based on personal experience, regard as hugely important.”

About the Make Roads Safe Campaign
The Make Roads Safe campaign is a broad-based coalition, including public health bodies, motoring organisations, road safety NGOs and international organisations. The campaign is also proud to have the support of more than a million individuals around the world, who have signed our petition and/or our Call to Action. The campaign exists to advocate for the policy recommendations of the Commission for Global Road Safety and the 2004 World Report on road traffic injury prevention. The campaign is coordinated and funded by the FIA Foundation, a UK registered charity (No: 1088670) working on international road safety. The campaign does not fundraise and there is no fee to join the coalition. All coalition partners have committed to raising awareness about the policy objectives of the Make Roads Safe campaign. Some of these organisations listed also contribute their own financial and/or human resources to support national traffic safety activities in support of the campaign. More information can be found at www.makeroadssafe.org

About the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety
On 19-20 November 2009 the Government of the Russian Federation will host the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. The Ministerial Conference - requested by the UN General Assembly - represents a historic opportunity to make progress on addressing an important public health problem. The Ministerial Conference, which will be held at the International Trade Centre in Moscow, is expected to convene as many as 1000 participants including Ministers of Health, Transport, Education, Foreign Affairs and others; representatives of United Nations agencies; leaders from nongovernmental and civil society organizations; representatives from private companies; and many other of the world's leading road safety experts. It is anticipated that participants will issue a clear call for action.

The objectives of the Ministerial Conference are to:
- Draw attention to the need for action to address the large and growing global impact of road traffic crashes, in particular in low and middle income countries.
- Review progress on implementation of the World report on road traffic injury prevention and the UN General Assembly resolutions.
- Provide a high-level global multi-sectoral policy platform to share information and good practices on road safety.
- Propose a number of actions for the future, including a discussion of the resources needed to fulfil these actions.

For more information on the Moscow City Racing event, please click here.