youth die everyday on the road
#1 cause of death for youth
By pledging support you agreed with the demands set out below and will support us to champion meaningful youth engagement in road safety from your own standpoint.
people pledged their support
Protect vulnerable road users, children, and youth on their way to get an education. Stop funding and building anything less than 3-star roads.
So we can afford formal and graduated driving training, necessary safety-equipment, and information on how to be safer.
Speed kills; we need established and enforced safe speed limits appropriate to the function and location of the road by transport authorities and police.
Get the unsafe vehicles off the roads and commit to a global vehicle safety standard.
We need safe and sustainable transport systems to combat the climate crisis. Let us breathe!
We need good helmet and seatbelt laws, laws that protect children in the back seat, and zero tolerance for drugs, alcohol, and distractions. We need the political will to enforce these laws.
Post-crash care saves lives. We demand a quick and efficient response when the worst happens and justice for road traffic victims.
Itʼs time to change your perception of youth. We want our needs, ideas, skills, and opinions taken into account. Use our boundless potential.
We would like to express that we’re not discrediting, reducing, or lowering the dangers of COVID-19 nor are we trying to pull focus from its effects on the global community. Hundreds of thousands have died from the pandemic. Similarly, road crashes have taken countless lives, affecting families and communities. We believe that it is time we start acting to prevent the tragic and premature loss of lives on the world’s roads.
Road safety connects with so many different fields. It connects with health, education, equality, sustainable cities, and climate. Addressing road safety would mean addressing so many collective issues that the global community experiences. Throughout the course of the pandemic, we have seen the importance of mobility. To address road safety at this time would also mean contributing to the services and the efforts being done to fight the pandemic. Safe and sustainable transportation means; frontliners being able to safely go from one area to another to deliver essential services, it means having meals and groceries delivered safely at home so that family members don’t have to go out, it means clear paths for emergency vehicles to reach friends and families who are struggling, it transports health workers and other frontliners to and from their areas of work, and so many more. It also means that while hospitals are struggling with COVID cases, we are reducing the burden on emergency services by reduced road injury. Everything is connected. Focusing on road safety will not pull effort away from fighting the pandemic - in fact, it will strengthen it.
The main message of the campaign is that road crashes need to be met with urgent action and intervention from all members of the community. The pandemic has shown that the world can come together to fight a shared problem, potentially eliminating it so that the future generations do not have to suffer the same fate. We believe that this can also be achieved in the areas of road safety and sustainable mobility. Simply put, we want to end the tragic and premature loss of lives on the world’s roads; especially for youth who are the most affected.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.35 million people die each year because of road traffic crashes. The Global Status Report on Road Safety lists road crashes as the number one cause of death for young people aged 15-29. It is also sadly the biggest killer of children age 5-14. To learn more about road safety as a global health issue.
In a way, it has shown that there is a great need for safe and sustainable mobility. People who don’t own private vehicles, whether they’re essential members of the community going to work or civilians getting medical help, have had trouble with mobility. The pandemic has shown that mobility is crucial and that safer spaces need to be created so that vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists are still able to travel safely. The current reality of lockdowns (whether we agree them or not) is being refenced to start a conversation about safe mobility and how it affects youth in particular. Young people have particularly been affected, see this guide for more information.
In particular, during the COVID19 pandemic the case for safe and sustainable mobility has never been stronger.
