The main objectives are to highlight the risks for young road users, and to promote action around key factors that prevent injuries: helmets, seat belts, anti-drunk driving and speeding laws, and infrastructure improvements. The slogan for the Week, Road Safety is No Accident, “highlights…that road safety happens not by accident, but through the deliberate efforts…of many individuals and many sectors of society.”

 

During the Week, hundreds of initiatives—local, national, regional and global—are taking place. The key global event is the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety hosted in Geneva, Switzerland by a UN youth group. This “Youth Assembly” aims to help shift the attitudes and behavior towards road safety among young people worldwide, and to encourage and support delegates to become national leaders for road safety.

 

Developed by the “Youth Assembly” in September 2006, a Declaration for Road Safety provides background on global road injury prevention, a commitment from youth delegates to improve road safety, and recommendations for various groups concerned with safety. Highlights include the call to all youth to "serve as role models…and to promote road safety among their friends and families,” and to urge them to “stand up and participate in local, national and international campaigns and programmes." It calls on parents as the “heroes and mentors” of youth to “serve as role models for safe road traffic behaviour” and “to help raise a generation of responsible road users.”

 

In addition to emphasizing the responsibilities of parents and families, it urges schools and universities to “include road safety in … school curricula from an early age;” policy-makers, “to ensure safe and affordable public transportation options …accessible by all;” and community-based organizations “to promote road safety and adopt the most effective channels to make messages heard.”

 

Also charged with responsibility are private companies capable of developing safe products. Additionally, responsible marketing is a big issue - “When your advertisements glamorize speed and encourage the use of alcohol, you give us the impression that we can afford to take risks!”

 

The media is asked to “report responsibly and accurately on the traumatic consequences of road traffic crashes and to broadcast advertisements for responsible road traffic behaviour as often as you broadcast advertisements to sell products.”

 

Prominent people in society are called on to “serve as role models by…always wearing a seat-belt or helmet and not drinking-driving and speeding, not only in your professional roles but also in your personal lives.”

 

Read the full text online at: www.who.int/roadsafety/week/activities/global/youth/declaration/en/index.html