General Assembly Session 58 meeting 41

The Acting President

I now call on the representative of Oman to introduce draft resolution A/58/L.3.

Mr. Al-Hinai (Oman)

The General Assembly is for the very first time discussing another rapidly growing epidemic -- that of globa road l traffic deaths and injuries. The Secretary-General's report (A/58/228) contains very alarming statistics. It was just over a hundred years ago that the first road traffic death occurred. Today, approximately 3,000 people worldwide are killed daily as a result of road crashes, while thousands more are injured, some never again to lead productive lives. It is also alarming that this burden falls disproportionately on developing countries, where roads are becoming more congested with vehicles and people every day.

But, let us not lose hope. The battle is not lost. We can do something about it. I am optimistic that we can get this plague under control. I am optimistic for two reasons: first, because we have an unprecedented understanding of the dynamics of road crashes and, secondly, because we have a broad range of effective interventions to prevent them.

Let me first say a word about the predicted rapid rate of increase in road deaths in the developing world. This is a man-made plague, and we understand very well why the deaths and injuries have been increasing in low- and middle-income countries. What makes this plague different from AIDS and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is that we can both understand and control this problem.

In developing countries, the victims of road crashes are the most vulnerable people, the vulnerable road users. Most of the victims of road traffic injuries and deaths are pedestrians, a contrast to the situation in developed countries, where the victims are mostly the drivers and passengers of automobiles. Owing to the stricter manufacturing standards imposed on car manufacturers in the developed countries, those passengers and drivers are actually very well protected by the steel frame of the vehicles in which they are riding.

In developing countries, pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable road users; they have no protection. Mothers carrying babies walk between rapidly moving buses, cars and trucks, while traffic signs, which are rare, are often ignored even when present.

Cars in developing countries are much more likely to kill a person than cars in the developed countries. In some developing countries, cars are up to 200 times more lethal than in developed countries. Further, we also know that car manufacturers plan to increase production and exports to the developing world. As the number of vehicles increase, so will the number of deaths and injuries -- unless we take action.

From this, we can understand the rate of growth of this epidemic. It is a scientific fact that we live in a world that is based on cause and effect. When we understand the causes, we can control the effects. In this case, we understand exactly what is behind the increasing rates of death, and that gives us an advantage in addressing the problem. Hence, my first reason for optimism.

The second reason for my optimism is the new way of thinking about road safety. The historical view had been that the way to prevent traffic deaths was simply to warn drivers and pedestrians to be careful. We thought that prevention meant getting the word out to people and educating them about safe procedures. In that view, education was really the only tool we had for prevention. We now realize that there are many other actions we can take, and that responsibility rests not only with individuals, but it should be a responsibility shared across many sectors and levels in our countries.

A more advanced approach to road safety has been developed, one that recognizes that the driver, the vehicle and infrastructure are three components of a dynamic system. That approach recognizes that there are many things we can do to prevent road crashes. A systems-based approach seeks to identify all the sources of error and design that contribute to road crashes, and then tries to mitigate the consequences. That systems-based approach suggests that, first, we can look at roadways and make changes. For example, pedestrians and people in non-motorized vehicles are not separated from fast-moving traffic. Many roads do not have barriers, or even white lines down the middle, to separate lanes of traffic. Communities should have roadways that circle villages or towns, rather than just pass right through them. Blind spots that limit visibility can be eliminated, and rumble strips can be added to roads to reduce speed.

Next, we can make design changes in vehicles. Many vehicles may be very old and lacking safety features such as collapsible steering columns and engine blocks that absorb impacts by crushing like an accordion. Those features -- and others such as seatbelts, child-safety seats, airbags and lights to increase visibility -- can be added to modifications to the front ends of vehicles to minimize injury to pedestrians.

We can also look at human behaviour and make changes. Laws can be written and enforced that severely penalize drivers for speeding or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Laws and their enforcement can be supported, starting at the top levels of Governments and down through community levels, and taught at an early age in school.

On behalf of its sponsors -- Algeria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Grenada, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Yemen and Oman -- I now have the honour to introduce the draft resolution on the global road safety crisis, which is contained in document A/58/L.3. Since the issuance of the draft resolution, the following additional countries have joined the list of sponsors: Armenia, Argentina, Belgium, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Kenya, Nauru, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago.

In order to raise greater awareness of the magnitude of the road-traffic injury problem, the sponsors are calling for a plenary meeting of the General Assembly to be held on 14 April 2004 to bring together Government representatives and experts to discuss this issue. That meeting will be held in conjunction with World Health Day, which will be observed on the 7 April 2004, and the World Health Organization's launching on that day of its World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention.

In conjunction with that plenary meeting, the sponsors are requesting that a meeting be organized to allow the private sector, relevant non-governmental organizations, members of civil society and other interested parties to exchange information on best practices regarding road safety. The sponsors are also calling for the Economic and Social Council to facilitate the exchange of information on best practices regarding road safety and to make recommendations for road traffic injury control. It is expected that the outcome of the exchange of information between the Economic and Social Council's regional commissions and other relevant organizations and agencies of the United Nations system and the exchange of views that will take place at the 14 April 2004 meeting will form the basis of the report of the Secretary-General to be submitted to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the representatives who participated in the many informal meetings we held and who offered constructive suggestions, amendments and advice.

I am honoured to recommend draft resolution A/58/L.3 for adoption by the General Assembly.

In conclusion, catastrophic road crashes are not a necessary product of development. Motorized vehicles represent positive progress for people and allow us to develop economically and as a society. We can ensure that, as our nations move people and goods to foster development and commerce, we do it safely. For my delegation, this represents an extraordinary opportunity for all of us to help reach that goal -- an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of men, women and children around the world.

Mr. Suhaili (Malaysia)

At the outset, my delegation would like to commend the delegation of Oman for its initiative in raising this important question as an agenda item of the General Assembly. We extend our sincere appreciation in particular to Ambassador Fuad Al-Hinai, Permanent Representative of the Sultanate Oman to the United Nations, for his untiring efforts and dedication in pursuing this matter. My delegation would also like to acknowledge the role and contributions of Member States and relevant agencies of the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and members of civil society to this initiative. We welcome the publication of the inaugural report of the Secretary-General on the global road safety crisis (A/58/228). We support the recommendations contained in the report, most of which have been, and are being, implemented by Malaysia.

According to statistics compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic accidents worldwide have resulted in the deaths of over 1 million people and caused injury and disability to more than 10 million others on an annual basis. In 2000 road traffic accidents constituted the ninth leading cause of death. Such a horrific situation affects both developed and developing countries. However, 88 per cent of those deaths and injuries have occurred in developing countries. Furthermore, it is estimated that at least 6 million people will die and 60 million others will be injured or disabled in developing countries over the next 10 years as a result of road traffic accidents. Those figures warrant serious and urgent attention and a concerted global effort to tackle and reverse such a largely preventable cause of death and injury.

In Malaysia over 200,000 cases of road traffic accidents were reported in 2002 alone. Those cases resulted in the loss of nearly 6,000 Malaysian lives. The fatality rate due to these accidents in 2002 stood at a rate of 4.9 deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles. Consequently, total losses to the gross national product arising from that situation amounted to $1.42 billion.

The Government of Malaysia has maintained a long-standing and abiding commitment to address this problem, in the interest of saving lives and managing valuable resources required for development. The National Road Safety Council of Malaysia was established in 1962. Through the National Council, the Government of Malaysia continues to undertake various efforts to reduce the number of road traffic accidents and to promote road traffic safety consciousness among road users and the general public. The Council has set a target of reducing fatalities to a rate of 4 per 10,000 registered vehicles by 2010. In pursuing that objective, in 1997 Malaysia launched a nationwide road traffic safety campaign and awareness programme premised on the concept of the "three Es", which stands for education, enforcement and engineering. That campaign has been quite effective in reducing the number of road accident fatalities to 5,886 deaths in 2002. Malaysia will continue to make serious efforts to further reduce that figure.

Aside from efforts at the national level, Malaysia is an active participant at the regional and international levels in formulating strategies for the development and sustainability of road infrastructure. Among other things, those strategies are aimed at reducing road traffic accidents by constructing better, safer and more road user-friendly infrastructure and by promoting and ensuring efficient maintenance of road infrastructure. Malaysia is involved in the World Bank Group's Global Road Safety Partnership, the World Road Association, the Land Transport and Safety Committee of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia and ASEAN's Sub-working Group on Road Transport and Road Safety. We believe that the consultations in, and experiences gained through, those and other forums have, and will continue to be, useful in the collective efforts to address this issue at the regional and international levels. That would also be in accordance with one of the conclusions contained in the report of the Secretary-General submitted under this item.

The statistics on deaths, injuries and disabilities caused by road traffic accidents must be a cause of grave concern to us. They are a burden on our human conscience and a subject of concern because of their destructive and multidimensional impact on the economic and social well-being of our societies. The loss of even one human life and the disabilities caused by road traffic accidents have a rippling negative effect on individuals, families and societies. It is equally heart-rending for anyone to learn of the loss of dear friends and family members -- be it a teenager involved in an illegal motorcycle race on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, a family returning from vacation somewhere in Greece or a busload of passengers killed in a ravine somewhere in Pakistan. Initially, such accidents immediately and drastically affect family and social units, both emotionally and psychologically. Subsequently they have a gradual effect on the larger community and on the country as a whole, owing to the human, economic and social losses involved.

According to studies conducted by the World Health Organization, Harvard University and the World Bank, it is anticipated that by 2020, if left unchecked, road traffic accidents will advance to become the second leading cause of death and disability in the world. The inclusion of this item in the agenda of the General Assembly is very timely, especially given that road safety will be the theme and focus of World Health Day in 2004. Malaysia supports the adoption of that theme to mark the start of a global campaign for road traffic safety. We also support the draft resolution before the Assembly on this item.

Road traffic accidents have affected, and continue to affect, each and every one of us in one way or another. The United Nations has an important role to play in leading international efforts to address this highly preventable but deadly public safety problem. Rest assured that, within our means and capacity, Malaysia stands committed to make its contribution in that regard.

Mr. Zhang Yishan (China)

The Chinese delegation supports the consideration by the current session of the General Assembly of the agenda item entitled "Global road safety crisis". I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to register our gratitude to the Permanent Mission of Oman for this initiative. I would also like to thank Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the informative report (A/58/228) that he has submitted to the General Assembly under this item.

According to the report of the Secretary-General, road traffic injuries have become a public health crisis of global dimensions. In 2000, 1.26 million people worldwide died as a result of road traffic injuries, accounting for 2.2 per cent of global mortality and ranking as the ninth leading cause of human death and morbidity. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that by 2020 road traffic injuries could rank third among the causes of death and disability, ahead of HIV/AIDS and malaria.

A cause of concern is the fact that the losses sustained by developing countries as a result of road traffic injuries far exceed those of developed countries. Of the 1.26 million road traffic fatalities in 2000, about 1.04 million occurred in developing countries, which translates into 88 per cent of the total number of deaths, whereas developed countries accounted for only 12 per cent. Faced with that grave situation, it stands to reason that the international community should enhance cooperation and endeavour to improve road safety in all countries, and in developing countries in particular. In that context, I wish to make four points.

First, ensuring road safety is a systemic undertaking that involves human beings, vehicles, roads, the environment and management. In formulating specific laws, policies and measures in an effort to eradicate causes of road traffic injuries, countries should take into account the overall picture and a whole range of factors.

Secondly, given that national Governments bear the primary responsibility for road safety, they should give priority to preventive interventions. In doing so, they should rely on the participation and collaboration of all sectors of society; heighten the safety awareness of relevant Government departments, transportation authorities and the general public; and ensure road safety.

Thirdly, it is imperative to effectively beef up international cooperation. Countries should increase their exchange of information, learn from one another and join their efforts to improve road safety. Because developing countries suffer from economic constraints and their infrastructure and management techniques are yet to be perfected, the international community should provide them with the necessary financial, technical and managerial assistance.

Fourthly, the World Health Organization (WHO), which shoulders the weighty responsibility of keeping everyone in good health, should play an important role in coping with this problem. We have noted with pleasure that WHO has chosen the theme of road safety for World Health Day 2004. It is our hope that the events surrounding World Health Day will serve to further heighten public attention to road safety in all countries and make travelling a safer and more comfortable experience.

China is a developing country. Along with the sustained healthy growth of the Chinese economy over the past two decades, China's road construction and automobile industry have made significant headway. Questions such as how to try to improve road safety conditions, accelerate legislation on road safety, increase input in highway and urban road safety facilities, intensify the training and safety education of drivers, further improve road traffic accident prevention mechanisms and upgrade the treatment and rehabilitation of those injured in traffic accidents are major challenges facing the Chinese Government. We hope to enhance cooperation with the WHO and other international organizations and agencies, draw on the advanced experience of other countries and scale new heights in China's road safety capacity-building endeavours.

Mr. Vargas (Costa Rica)

At the outset, I would like to thank the Permanent Mission of Oman for assuming this important initiative.

In the early days of the automobile, some people made fun of those slow moving vehicles by calling out "hitch a horse to it" as they passed by. Others welcomed the prospect that such an innovative machine would put an end to the reckless behaviour of horsemen who dashed down streets in full gallop, thereby endangering pedestrians. Over 100 years have lapsed since then, and both jokes and hopes have literally been run over by the almost unmanageable road crisis that, to one degree or another, affects all the countries of the world and whose consequences are reflected in alarming statistics.

Traffic accidents are today responsible for the disability of approximately 30 million people and cause more than 3 million deaths per year. Those numbers have made traffic accidents the principal cause for the loss of potential life-years. Road accidents require $500 billion annually in medical services and are responsible for a loss in productivity amounting to about 1 per cent of a country's gross domestic product. Nevertheless, those statistics do not begin to quantify the dimensions of individual and familial tragedies caused by traffic accidents, of which all of us have been, or may potentially be, victims.

Traffic accidents generate and multiply exponentially the complex sources of violence. They harm the economy and the environment and have damaging physical and psychological effects on human beings, as well as on such social and cultural values as security and solidarity and on efforts to improve quality of life.

The lack of road safety long ago ceased to be a problem of the developed world alone or a phenomenon limited to large urban centres. In my country, for example, the motorization index is growing exponentially, thereby increasing the risk of traffic accidents and producing a worrying rise in the emission of toxic gases. Between 1981 and 2002 the number of in situ deaths grew by 243 per cent. Although the percentage of deaths caused by traffic accident has gradually decreased, that reduction was not due to a net drop in the actual number of deaths but to the fact that there are currently many more non-fatal accidents. The number of accidents has doubled in the past 10 years, totalling 64,440 in the year 2002. For a nation of fewer than 4 million inhabitants, such numbers indicate that the lack of road safety is a very serious social and public health problem affecting mostly children, students and the majority of the economically active segment of the population.

For generations, road safety strategies have followed the traditional model of the "four Es". That model corresponds to the English words enforcement, engineering, education and emergency; in other words, to the laws pertaining to those words. However, it is necessary to expand that traditional model to include new, complementary strategies. With regard to Costa Rica itself, our road transit authorities are making strenuous efforts to refocus their work and achieve more concrete and effective results.

In that regard, my country has incorporated several new elements in its effort to achieve road safety as part of an approach that brings together various perspectives, policies, strategies, resources and expertise. Against that backdrop, in promoting road safety it is essential to take into account specific geographic, demographic, cultural and climactic characteristics. It is also essential to involve local governments, civil society and the private sector in devising and implementing road safety policies. Local management of road safety must result in the putting in place by the users of the road system itself of participatory approaches to the design, implementation, monitoring, control and evaluation of plans and programmes in the area road safety that take into account the local environment. Moreover, given the dynamic character of the road safety problem, it is necessary to decentralize the taking of political, technical and financial decisions.

I would in particular like to emphasize the importance of putting a human face on engineering. The decision-making process regarding the implementation of civil engineering work must take into account the particularities and special needs of the most vulnerable users of the transit system. Among other things, sustainable road safety requires the development of a road system defined by the abilities of the users of those roads. In that connection, a road system should not be more complicated than what the least competent user can negotiate. That is an idea we must consider.

From its earliest beginnings, the automobile was conceived as a tool in the service of human beings that would save time, physical effort and economic resources, not as an end in itself -- and much less as a weapon of mass destruction. Let us join efforts to ensure that road transportation once again becomes a means of safely and quickly reaching a destination, and not an ongoing threat to every child and adult.

In conclusion, in addition to expressing our gratitude to the Secretary-General for his report on the global road safety crisis (A/58/223), I would once again like to thank the delegation of Oman for its leadership in the preparation of the draft resolution on this item, which we are happy to sponsor.

Mr. Mantovani (Italy)

I have the honour to take the floor on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the associated countries of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey and the Economic Free Trade Association countries of Iceland and Liechtenstein align themselves with this statement.

The European Union welcomes the report of the Secretary-General (A/58/228) on the need for a global effort to raise awareness about the health impact and social and economic costs of road traffic crashes and injuries. The magnitude of the burden posed by road traffic injuries is reflected by the figures cited in the report of the World Health Organization (WHO). It is also clear that this public health problem has a major effect on low- and middle-income countries and that it considerably undermines the achievement of sustainable development.

Despite the gravity of this public health problem, we are convinced that a great deal can be done to prevent and reduce road traffic injuries. Accidents on the roads are preventable, and their impact on society can be reduced by the political commitment of national Governments.

We can also do more on an international level to address this problem. To that end, we call for efforts by the United Nations system to support the development of policies on road safety and to promote the integration of road safety concerns into all relevant national policies -- including those that relate to women, children and the elderly -- within the overall framework of sustainable development. In that context the United Nations Development Programme, the WHO, the World Bank and UNICEF, as well as the regional development banks, should be called upon to play a major role through the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper process. The United Nations system can also contribute by providing assistance in the critical area of data collection. In that respect, the European Union welcomes the initiative by the WHO to designate road safety as the theme for World Health Day, which will be celebrated in Paris on 7 April 2004.

The European Union attaches great importance to the problem of road safety. That commitment is reflected in the European Commission's recent adoption of its European road safety action programme for the period 2003 -- 2010, which aims at halving the number of road accident victims in the European Community as a whole by 2010. The same action programme provides for the establishment of a European road safety observatory within the Commission.

The problem of road safety is on the agenda of the European Union. The ministries of transportation of the member States of the European Union will gather in Verona, Italy, in the next few days to discuss priority action lines in order to improve and harmonize security standards in Europe.

The European Union believes that saving human lives through an effective road safety policy is a difficult challenge, but it is also a moral obligation for all Member States.

Finally, speaking in my national capacity, let me add that Italy is ready to join the list of sponsors to draft resolution A/58/L.3, on the global road safety crisis.