RUSSIA: Ministers from around the world meet to battle rising tide of road accidents

Record ID: 730771

  • Title: RUSSIA: Ministers from around the world meet to battle rising tide of road accidents
  • Date: 24th November 2009
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (NOVEMBER 18, 2009) (REUTERS) PEOPLE ATTENDING CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF ACTRESS MICHELLE YEOH, GLOBAL AMBASSADOR MAKE ROADS SAFE CAMPAIGN, ADDRESSING CONFERENCE ATTENDANTS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLOBAL AMBASSADOR FOR THE MAKE ROADS SAFE CAMPAIGN, ACTRESS MICHELLE YEOH SAYING "It is the top killer of children globally today and if we don't do something about it it will overtake all forms of diseases, horrible disease that we fight so hard to prevent our children from having, and then you know we send them to school and they get knocked over by a car." ORGANISERS OF CONFERENCE PROMOTING USAGE OF HELMETS AUDIENCE APPLAUDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR FELLOW OXFORD UNIVERSITY, KEVIN WATKINS SAYING "It is an area where we are not really talking rocket science. We are talking about the police enforcing speeding regulations, the enforcement of helmet legislation. We are talking about road designers building smart roads and not roads that cut between a community and a school." SYMBOL OF CONFERENCE VIKTOR KIRYANOV, HEAD OF RUSSIA'S TRAFFIC POLICE, ADDRESSING CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Russia) HEAD OF RUSSIA'S TRAFFIC POLICE, VIKTOR KIRYANOV SAYING "Thanks to measurements we took we reduced the number of accidents involving drunk drivers with forty percent, and actions against this are still going on today." MOSCOW, RUSSIA (NOVEMBER 19, 2009) (REUTERS) TRAFFIC POLICE CHECKING PAPERS OF DRIVER CAR STANDING ON PEDESTRIAN CROSSING AS TRAFFIC POLICE IS CHECKING PAPERS OF DRIVER CARS MAKING ILLEGAL U-TURNS ON CENTRAL STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) DRIVER, OLEG SAYING "The most important thing I think we should do more about is to improve the behaviour on our roads, drivers should understand that by not giving way to other cars, you don't solve any problems." CARS DRIVING OVER WHITE LINE TRAFFIC SIGN FORBIDDING PARKING CARS PARKED CLOSE TO TRAFFIC SIGN WHICH MEANS FORBIDDEN TO PARK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) UNIDENTIFIED DRIVER SAYING "They need to build better roads, that is all" SIX-LANE TRAFFIC IN CENTRE OF MOSCOW
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA2K8GHZ3V9AM3Z8TNUXOWSYD3R
  • Story Text: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday (November 19) called on world powers to battle a rising tide of road accidents which he said killed the equivalent of a major city each year and drained the global economy of 500 billion US dollars.
    Medvedev, speaking at the first ministerial conference devoted to road safety, called for tougher action to clamp down on speeding, though he admitted Russian roads were haunted by dangerous drivers.
    "Each year a megapolis is wiped off the world map, while more than 15 million people receive trauma's and injuries. If we don't stop this trend, then according to the analysis based on our data, in the year 2020 road accidents will become the third biggest threat to our health," Medvedev told the conference, adding that 3,500 people were killed each day in road traffic accidents.
    He added that, 'the price of human tragedy is impossible to measure but the damage to national economies from road accidents is possible to measure -- this damage is more than 500 billion US dollars.' Road accidents kill more people worldwide than many wars, though campaigners say the issue has so far been largely ignored by the international community and most charities.
    Actress Michelle Yeoh is the global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe Campaign.
    Yeoh said road accidents was a one of the top causes of deaths of children across the world.
    "It is the top killer of children globally today and if we don't do something about it it will overtake all forms of diseases, horrible disease that we fight so hard to prevent our children from having, and then you know we send them to school and they get knocked over by a car," she said Experts at the conference say young people are the biggest victim of road accidents, with road traffic fatalities the single biggest cause of death among 15-19 year olds in developing countries and the second leading cause among 5-14 year olds.
    Road safety expert and senior fellow at Oxford University, Kevin Watkins said action needed to be taken.
    "It is an area where we are not really talking rocket science. We are talking about the police enforcing speeding regulations, the enforcement of helmet legislation. We are talking about road designers building smart roads and not roads that cut between a community and a school," Watkins said.
    Medvedev, acknowledged that thousands still died needlessly in traffic accidents. Speeding and overtaking into oncoming traffic is common on Russia's congested roads, which officials concede are some of the most dangerous in Europe.
    Russia's chief traffic policeman, Vitaly Kiryanov, said that the number of deaths on the country's roads had been reduced by focusing on simple measures such as discouraging drink driving.
    "Thanks to measurements we took we reduced the number of accidents involving drunk drivers with 40 percent, and actions against this are still going on today," he said.
    Drivers on the road in Russia's capital, Moscow felt better roads and improved behaviour would reduce the number of accidents.
    "The most important thing I think we should do more about is to improve the behaviour on our roads, drivers should understand that by not giving way to other cars, you don't solve any problems," one driver said.
    "They need to build better roads, that is all," another man added.
    So far this year, there have been 168,000 traffic accidents in Russia, killing 21,300 and injuring 212,500 people, according to government statistics.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register