| Date | 22 May 2003 |
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The Acting President
I now give the floor to the representative of Oman to introduce draft resolution A/57/L.77.
Mr. Al-Hinai (Oman)
At the outset, my delegation would like to join the Acting President in expressing sincere condolences to the Governments and the peoples of Algeria and Sri Lanka for the tragic loss of life in the flooding in Sri Lanka and the earthquake in Algeria.
As I stand before the Assembly, somewhere in the world, in countries represented here, road accidents are taking place. A number of people are getting killed, and an even greater number of people are getting injured, some of whom will go on to have life-long disabilities. Globally, road traffic accidents cause 1.2 million deaths and injure 10 to 15 million people every year. It is projected that by 2020 road traffic injuries will account for about 2.3 million deaths worldwide, with more than 90 per cent of those deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1998 road traffic crashes accounted for 2.8 per cent of all global deaths, and ranked ninth among the leading causes of disease burden. By the year 2020, road traffic injuries could take third place in the ranking of disease burden. The annual cost of road traffic accidents is a staggering $500 billion, with Africa alone bearing one fifth of that cost, funds badly needed for development projects.
Yet, the issue of road traffic safety is not significantly on the international public policy agenda at all. The leadership of the international community largely ignores road safety. Take, for example, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which was held at Johannesburg last September. The Plan of Implementation adopted at the Summit included a number of specific goals and targets related to the environmental impact of transport. But the Plan does not specifically mention road safety even once. The thousands of deaths occurring daily around the world do not receive the same media attention as, say, a single aircraft crash with a loss of about 200 lives. Given the expected increase in the level of motor vehicle use and the resulting growth in road traffic deaths and injuries, action to reduce this dramatic rise in casualties should now be a significant priority for the international community.
An excellent start has been made with the decision of the General Assembly to include an item on road safety on the agenda of the fifty-seventh session. The General Assembly will, for the very first time, discuss road safety. Another welcome development is the decision of the World Health Organization to dedicate World Health Day in 2004 to the theme of safer roads. There is still much more that needs to be done to raise awareness of the issue of road safety and to develop prevention strategies based on effective approaches to road safety management.
Valuable work on road safety is being undertaken by WHO, the World Bank, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Global Road Safety Partnership, the Bone and Joint Decade and the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, just to name a few. What is lacking, unfortunately, is coordination between them. Work undertaken by United Nations agencies lacks defined goals set at the political level by the international community. That lack of a clearly established mandate prevents the development of a coherent strategy for road safety management. The sponsors of the draft resolution before the Assembly this morning therefore believe that there is an urgent need for a new initiative that can pull together the various efforts of different agencies and provide a single focal point for global road safety.
I have the honour to introduce the draft resolution contained in document A/57/L.77, entitled "Global road safety crisis", on behalf of the following other sponsors: Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Gabon, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen and Zambia.
The preambular paragraphs of the draft resolution recognize the magnitude of the problem and its contributing factors. In its operative part, paragraph 4 will request the Secretary-General to submit a report containing the views expressed by Member States and United Nations agencies that will form the basis for discussion during the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly.
I commend to the General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution A/57/L.77. By adopting it, we would be starting, in small way, to move towards making our roads safe for ourselves and for generations to come.
The Acting President
I have the honour to inform the General Assembly that Australia and Costa Rica have become sponsors of draft resolution A/57/L.77.
The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/57/L.77. May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt draft resolution A/57/L.77 without a vote?
The Acting President
May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 169?
