In spite of the completion of a global decade on road traffic crashes, the consensus is that the world has failed to save lives from road crashes, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE
THE accident that rendered Toke Abraham (pseudonym) started like a normal trip from his Abuja base to Lagos State on business.
Abraham had started the journey early at dusk, intending to hit Lagos at dawn, enter Idumota and Martins streets where his trading partners were waiting.
But at Ore, the vehicle’s tyre bust on speed. Abraham recalled that the bus somersaulted several times and landed on its roof.
Abraham broke his spinal cord and was left for dead. He was, however, rushed to the hospital where he was revived and his condition managed until it became certain he would be confined to the wheel chair. No fewer than eight passengers died.
Yearly, casualty figure has continued to rise across the globe. By 2008, it had become a major concern such that it was resolved to set aside a decade to draw attention to the need to reduce road crashes and fatalities which have grown to about 1.3 million globally.
The Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 was proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in March 2010, to reduce road traffic deaths globally.
One of the major mandates is to save an estimated five million lives on the world’s roads during the decade.
Quoting the Global status report on road safety, the Wikipedia said road traffic crashes take the lives of nearly 1.3 million yearly, and injure 20–50 million more.
More than 90 percent of road traffic deaths and injuries occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48 per cent of the world’s registered vehicles. If no action is taken, road traffic crashes are predicted to result in the deaths of about 1.9 million people yearly by 2020.
Sadly, as the world marked the end of the decade on May 11, it was clear, that the world has failed, with road crashes hitting 3.8 million globally, despite initiatives rolled out to mitigate a spike.
The Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in March 2010 and the journey started in May.
The UN’s resolution A/RES/64/255 sets the goal for the Decade “to stabilise and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing activities conducted at the national, regional and global levels”. The resolution calls on all member states to set road safety targets to be achieved during the Decade.
While governments are expected to lead on the implementation of activities, the resolution specifically calls for a multi-sectoral approach that includes academia, the private sector, civil society, the media, victims and their families.
The UN’s Road Safety Collaboration has developed a Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 as an overall framework for activities which may take place in the context of the Decade.
The “pillars” of activities laid down by the UN are: Road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users, and post-crash response and a private sector coalition that promotes road safety.
Together for Safer Roads (TSR), aligns with these Pillars by developing programs for the private sector to improve road safety.
The Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 was launched on May 11, 2011 in more than 100 countries, through hundreds of national and local events. Governments, international agencies, civil society organisations and private companies marked the beginning of the Decade across the globe.
The global plan as a roadmap has helped many countries develop, or are in the process of developing their own national plans for the Decade.
In Nigeria, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), which was the global template for a specialised coordinator of national government initiatives on road safety, said the nation’s roads have remained a death trap.
Much of the pillars itemised by the UN to keep the roads safe were just maturing in the country, with the third pillar, which is improved vehicle safety, piloted by the Temple Group, which has been pioneering vehicle testing across the states are just maturing as many states are just keying into the initiative after the FCT and Lagos State (LACVIS).
FRSC Corps Marshal Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, said though there had been marginal victory, much milestones, he would be covered in the next decade of action to make the roads safer for all categories of road users.
Adenusi, founder of Safety Without Borders, a road safety initiative, that has been harping on making the roads safer in the last one decade said the city will start installing 70 new traffic control cameras and making alterations aimed at improving the safety of pedestrian crossings in the most dangerous locations this year.
“At the start in 2011, the number of road death was 1.3 million. A 10-year target was set for actions to drive down fatalities by minimum 50 per cent on world roads.
“Seven years into the Decade, the number jumped to 1.35 million. At the end of the decade the world failed,” Adenusi added.
He held that it would be wonderful if the world moved faster than it did in the last decade and saved the world from a plague worse than the cornavirus pandemic as it begins a the second decade of action against road traffic crashes from 2021-2030.
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