The UN Road Safety Collaboration is pleased to announce that the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week will be held from 8-14 May 2017. The Week will focus on speed and what can be done to address this key risk factor for road traffic deaths and injuries. Speed contributes to around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in high-income countries, and up to half in low- and middle-income countries.
Countries successfully reducing road traffic deaths have done so by prioritizing safety when managing speed. Among the proven strategies to address speed include:
Setting and enforcing speed limits appropriate to the function of each road, for example:
Setting and enforcing a maximum speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour in urban areas;
Setting and enforcing a maximum speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour on roads with high concentrations of pedestrians, cyclists and motorized traffic;
Enforcing speed limits through the use of automatic speed cameras;
Installing intelligent speed adaptation technology in vehicles;
Building or modifying roads to include features that limit speed such as traffic lights, roundabouts and speed humps.
The Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week seeks to increase understanding of the dangers of speed and generate action on measures to address speed, thereby saving lives on the roads.
All stakeholders – national and local governments, international agencies, civil society organizations, private companies, and the public generally – are invited to plan and host events marking the Week.
Advocacy materials for the Week will be available on this web page as they are finalized.
To read original article please see http://www.who.int/roadsafety/week/2017/en/