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Second UN Global Road Safety Week focused on worldwide pedestrian safety
More than 100 countries held Road Safety Week-related events, such as policy discussions and symbolic 'walks.'
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With the kick off for the Second United Nations Global Road Safety Week held in May, which is part of the U.N. Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, the World Health Organization continued its message to governments to take action to improve pedestrian safety.
“The Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 seeks to save 5 million lives. The Second U.N. Global Road Safety Week will serve to draw attention to the urgent need to better protect pedestrians worldwide and generate action on the measures needed to do so,” Etienne Krug, MD, MPH, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, told Orthopaedics Today Europe during the Second U.N. Global Road Safety Week May 6-12.
“As governments commit to make walking safe, lives will be saved,” Krug said.
Events held worldwide
More than 270,000 pedestrians are killed on the roads every year, which comprises 22% of the 1.24 million people killed annually from road traffic crashes, according to Krug. Spinal cord, lower extremity and traumatic brain injuries are the most common result of road traffic collisions and they often require a long hospital stay involving rehabilitation.
Image: World Health Organization
Nearly 90 countries registered their events in support of the Road Safety Week and events were ultimately held in more than 100 countries. Some events included high-level policy discussions of road trauma, long and short walks and art and photo exhibitions.
WHO is encouraged by progress made in the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2010, Krug said, noting Turkey recently joined the Decade with support of the country’s prime minister. Signs of the Decade’s influence can be seen in national plans and strategies, expanded prevention efforts through new legislation, increased enforcement of existing laws and improved trauma care systems, he added.
Steps for accident prevention
Prior to this year’s Second Global Road Safety Week, WHO produced a manual on pedestrian safety that promotes combined enforcement, engineering and education measures and includes the following pedestrian safety guidelines:
- create new and enforce existing laws to reduce speeding, drinking and driving, mobile phone use, and other forms of distracted driving;
- build infrastructure to separate pedestrian and vehicles on the road, such as sidewalks, raised crosswalks and medians, overpasses and refuge islands;
- increase road lighting and reduce driving speeds by creating rumble strips, speed bumps and chicanes;
- restrict vehicle access in city centers via pedestrian-only zones;
- improve the design of mass transit routes;
- modify vehicle designs with soft fronts to protect pedestrians; and
- organize or improve trauma care systems so patients with life-threatening injuries are treated promptly. – by Jeff Craven
- For more information:
- Etienne Krug, MD, MPH, can be reached at 20 avenue Appia, CH 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland; email: kruge@who.int.
Disclosure: Krug has no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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Morten Schultz Larsen, MD
In most hospitals, the majority of trauma deaths occur following road traffic crashes and pedestrians are among the most vulnerable. A pedestrian collision can have devastating and even fatal consequences even at low speeds, so it is highly relevant to focus on pedestrian safety in the Second United Nations Global Road Safety Week.
Although a well-organized trauma care system can save lives when pedestrians are victims in traffic crashes, it is much more efficient to avoid collisions altogether. Severe extremity and/or head trauma are frequent injuries after a pedestrian collision, and even though these patients survive, the consequences are often long hospital treatment, lifelong impairment, inability to work and therefore a very high economic burden for all. So, reduction in road traffic accidents will save lives and money.
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