GRSP builds road safety capacity
From Viet Nam to Russia and India, Global Road Safety Partnership, through the Bloomberg Philanthropies sponsored project, Road Safety in 10 Countries (RS-10), has been actively building best practices in the management of road safety risk factors in recent months. Whether efforts focus on speed enforcement or the prevention of drink-driving, helmet wearing or use of seat belts, the high level of participation in workshops and concrete actions arising from them reflect a success not only in increasing knowledge and awareness, but they have also motivated evidence-based best practices for road safety to be implemented around the globe.
In India, a workshop was conducted for senior traffic police in the Punjab district, Jalandhar, focusing on the enforcement of drink driving. More than 56 people attended over a period of three days, including the high-level support from the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Commander of the Punjab Armed Police and the Superintendent of Police. Participants demonstrated widespread support for road safety education, reflected in a survey demonstrating that 92 per cent of attendees agreed that “police have a responsibility to educate drivers on the dangers of drinking and driving”.
In Viet Nam, three capacity-building workshops were hosted by RS-10 in the provinces of Ha Nam and Ninh Binh, which focused on the prevention of drink-driving. The first training workshop targeted transport officials, and aimed to foster knowledge on professional transport legislation, as well as the prevention of drink-driving for professional drivers of transport companies. This was also part of the programme in two separate 2-day training workshops for professional drivers (one in each province), which in addition to knowledge on legislation, focused on increasing basic road safety knowledge, addressing myths and negative impacts of alcohol while driving. In addition to the three workshops, the Global Road Safety Partnership also provided support for the official launch of Traffic Safety Month in both provinces.
“It was clear that by the end of the workshops, participants increased their basic knowledge on legislation related to drink-driving as well as drink-driving prevention,” explained Oanh Trinh To, GRSP Viet Nam Programme Manager. “With training materials provided by national experts, we were able to draw on a wealth of experience that was very effective. The success is reflected in the fact we have had requests from both provinces to provide further support for additional trainings and drink-driving campaigns.”
The work on road safety continued onwards in the regions of Lipetsk and Ivanovo in Russia, where workshops were delivered on enforcement of speed as a key risk factor contributing to road crashes. With participants ranging from the regional police force, Ministry of Health, World Bank, Global Road Safety Facility and the World Health Organization, the activities set a precedent for multi-sector collaboration at every level. Outcomes included the development of an enforcement strategy focusing on speeding and use of restraints, which has since helped the traffic police implement the knowledge and experience gained at the workshops.
