United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNECE Transport Review First edition - November 2008 ROAD SAFETY ybybyxbyxbyxbyxbyxbyxbxb United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNECE Transport Review First edition - November 2008 ROAD SAFETY New York and Geneva, 2008 Note The designati ons employed and the presentati on of the material in this publicati on do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nati ons concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authoriti es, or concerning the delimitati on of its fronti ers or boundaries. Acknowledgements The UNECE Transport Division wishes to express its sincere thanks to all those who contributed to this issue of the Transport Review, either with arti cles or through administrati ve services. Copyright noti ce Arti cles are copyright of the author(s) att ributed to it. All other text is copyright of the United Nati ons. All photos and illustrati ons, unless otherwise menti oned, are copyright of UNECE. All rights reserved. Publishing and contact details Published by the United Nati ons Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Transport Division Palais des Nati ons, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, Tel: +41 (0) 22 917 2401, Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0039 Email: [email protected], Website: www.unece.org/trans Subscripti ons To subscribe or unsubscribe to the UNECE Transport Review, please send an email to [email protected] Message from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon This year, more than one million people across the world will die from road traffi c injuries. This total includes about 400,000 people under 25 years old, and road traffi c crashes are the leading cause of death for 10- to 24-year-olds. Several million more men, women and young people will be injured or disabled. In additi on to the human suff ering, the annual cost of road traffi c injuries worldwide runs to hundreds of billions of dollars. In low- and middle-income countries, the economic cost of road injuries will be more than the development aid they receive. However, the risks of road crashes are known and can be prevented. They include excessive speeding, driving under the infl uence of alcohol or other drugs, failure to use seat-belts and helmets, poorly designed or insuffi ciently maintained road infrastructure, and the use of vehicles that are old, poorly maintained or lacking safety features. In recent years, preventi ng injury and death on the world’s roads has gained greater prominence on the internati onal development agenda. Technical support has improved. New policies have been implemented at the internati onal, regional and nati onal levels, including eff orts to set road traffi c casualty reducti on targets. Collaborati on within the UN system and with NGOs has been strengthened. Resoluti ons adopted by the UN General Assembly have raised the issue’s politi cal profi le. Despite increased awareness and more dynamic eff orts to improve road safety, the epidemic of road traffi c fataliti es and injuries will conti nue to be an important public health and development issue. Trends in many countries, in parti cular low-and middle-income countries, suggest that the problem could become noti ceably worse within the next decade. There remains a pressing need for greater eff orts and resources. I urge UN member States and global road safety partners to foster cooperati on under UN auspices. And I commend this issue of UNECE’s Transport Review to a wide global audience. Ban Ki-moon United Nati ons Secretary-General 5 REGIONAL AND NATIONAL CASE STUDIES Contents 65 Road safety stati sti cs from the UNECE region Ould Khou Sid’Ahmed 71 Armenia’s recent legislati ve initi ati ves in the fi eld of INTRODUCTIONS transport Hrant Beglaryan 5 United Nati ons Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Mobiliser les ressources politi ques - l’exemple de la France 8 72 UNECE Offi cer-in-Charge Paolo Garonna Michèle Merli 9 ITC Chairman Ralph Kellermann 74 Road safety in Italy 10 Transport Division Director Eva Molnar Luciana Iorio 76 Road safety on motorways in Kazakhstan Dulat Kuterbekov TAKING STOCK 79 Never change a winning concept - road safety in 12 UNECE’s dedicati on to reduce traffi c accidents the Netherlands Eva Molnar Petronella Aland 16 Built to be safe - road safety considerati ons in 81 Road Safety in Poland infrastructure Ryszard Krystek & Joanna Żukowska Sibylle Rupprecht 83 State Road Safety Policy in the Russian Federati on 18 Safer vehicles, safer roads - the role of vehicle constructi on Victor N. Kiryanov Bernard Gauvin 85 Some peculiariti es of road safety in Russia 22 The ADR’s contributi on to safer global goods Alexander Kvasov transport José Alberto Franco 86 The implementati on of electronic stability control in Sweden Roger Johannsson 25 Modern technologies in traffi c signs and signals Gernot Sauter 89 Eff ecti veness of enforcement demonstrati on programs in USA 32 Focus on the human element - the IRU Academy Maria Vegega Marti n Marmy 91 Road traffi c safety: dimensions and follow-up in Uzbekistan 34 Road deaths and injuries shatt er lives Abdulla Khashimov Brigitt e Chaudhry 93 Is sustainable road safety achievable in Africa? Robert Tama Lisinge STRATEGIC PARTNERS 95 Vehicular movement across border posts in Nigeria Osita Chidoka 38 Strategic partnership to improve road traffi c safety - mission possible? 97 Road safety in the Asia Pacifi c region Virginia Tanase Barry Cable 40 United Nati ons Road Safety Collaborati on 98 Assessing road safety through road traffi c violati ons in India Eti enne Krug Rohit Baluja 44 Case study on road safety - lessons from the EU 100 Overview of the road safety situati on in the Isabelle Kardacz UNESCWA region Nabil Safwat 46 Road safety in OECD/ITF countries Jack Short 102 Road safety in Lati n American Countries Maria del Carmen Gíron Tómas 55 Implementi ng the Recommendati ons of the World Report on Road Traffi c Injury Preventi on Björn Stafb om UNECE Transport Division UPDATES Important EU news for UNECE ITC members 58 The origins of uniform road signs and signals and 104 Miodrag Pesut the FIA Foundati on’s commitment to improving road safety globally 108 UNDA Project Corner David Ward Virginia Tanase & Marti ne-Sophie Fouvez The Global Road Safety Partnership 62 109 Acti viti es of the Transport Division Andrew J. Pearce 6 Foreword by the UNECE Offi cer-in-Charge Transport, especially road traffi c safety, is the area in which Equally useful in the global context are the UNECE Consolidated global cooperati on is inevitable as hundreds of millions of Resoluti ons on Road Traffi c (R.E.1) and on Road Signs and Signals people who travel on the roads every day take a risk. Their (R.E.2) providing a unique set of road safety best practi ces. safety must be preserved and improved. This can be achieved through the concerted eff orts of several players, public and UNECE is the oldest internati onal organisati on that collects and non-governmental alike. Even though certain achievements are publishes data on road traffi c accidents in a systemati c way. The obvious, further improvements should be made. annual publicati on of road traffi c accidents containing detailed stati sti cs in Europe and North America and the gathering and The UN system mandated UNECE to focus its principal acti viti es maintaining of data on road traffi c safety requirements in a on the region of Europe and North America. Nonetheless, number of UNECE countries are the best examples. As the the results of the work done at UNECE in the form of various results of the close and lasti ng cooperati on in gathering data regional recommendati ons, standards, norms and conventi ons and developing uniform methodologies among Eurostat, the have received global recogniti on, acceptance and applicability. Internati onal Transport Forum and UNECE, these experiences may be shared and further extended to cover regions and While diff erent countries have their specifi c road safety issues, countries outside UNECE. their nature is fundamentally similar. Hence, synergies in inter-regional work are possible and needed. UNECE legal I am confi dent that the fi rst editi on of the UNECE Transport instruments such as the Vienna Conventi ons on Road Traffi c and Review dedicated to road safety would contribute to further on Road Signs and Signals of 1968, which facilitate internati onal cement internati onal cooperati on and to exchange informati on road traffi c and increase road safety through the adopti on of on best practi ces achieved in the diff erent corners of the uniform traffi c rules, road signs and signals as well as markings, world. off er a basis for universal rules to improve road traffi c safety. Paolo Garonna United Nati ons Economic Commission for Europe Offi cer-in-Charge 8 Foreword by the Chairman of the Inland Transport Committee Since the creati on of the United Nati ons Economic Commission UNECE pioneered road safety acti viti es in the UN system for Europe (UNECE) in 1947, transport has been one of its with the establishment of an Ad Hoc Working Group on the principal acti viti es. For many decades, UNECE served as a bridge preventi on of road accidents in March 1950. This was followed between the East and the West in Europe. Aft er the ‘Cold War’, by the Group of Experts on Road Traffi c Safety (GE.20) and since the role of UNECE transformed into a link between the EU and 1988 the Working Party on Road Traffi c Safety (WP.1) under the non-EU countries.