First Capacity Development Session focuses on an introduction to road safety

The Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety held its first Capacity Development session last 30 October. Members of the Coalition participated in the event which was led by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety Head of Communications, Manpreet Darroch. 

An introduction to road safety, the first capacity development session, provided members with the basic and updated information and statistics on road safety. It was a refresher for members who were already in the road safety and sustainable mobility fields and a general overview for members who are connected to other fields. 

The session was interactive, putting members in different break out rooms so that they could get to know one another and figure out the knowledge assessment test together. The test was about identifying key road safety facts and statistics. 

 

World Health Organization (WHO) Director of Social Determinants of Health, Dr. Etienne Krug, and Head of the Global Injury Program of the Imperial College London, Dr. Margie Peden spoke to participants about road safety on a global scale. 

Dr. Etienne talked about global road safety statistics, highlighting the fact that road crashes join history’s list of the biggest causes of death worldwide.  He emphasized how impactful the results of road crashes could be in all aspects of society. He also touched on the importance of youth in the road safety movement. 

Dr. Margie discussed the risk factors and best practices when it comes to road safety. She explained that risk factors can be sorted into two categories; modifiable and non-modifiable. Factors like age and sex are non-modifiable while socio-economic, behavioral, infrastructural, environmental, and vehicle factors are classified under modifiable.

She also highlighted the importance of the safe systems approach in efforts to meet vision zero. 

Throughout the session, participants were quizzed on their road safety knowledge in global and local settings. Updated data on road safety was presented and was explained by the facilitator and the speakers.

Participants were given the opportunity to ask the speakers about the more technical aspects of road safety like how WHO gathers road safety data and what factors need to be taken to account when discussing vision zero. 

The session is one of many capacity development series the Coalition is set to launch. The sessions are for members only so be sure to join before registering for future events.