Press release: Road safety partnerships save lives around the world

Renault hosts 2012 Global Road Safety Partnership Annual Meeting in Spa, Belgium

By working together, automakers, governments and humanitarian groups are preventing deaths and injuries caused by road crashes around the world. Examples of where this is being done are among the highlights of the 2012 Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) Annual Meeting, which is being hosted by Renault the during the automaker’s famed World Series auto event at the Francorchamps circuit in Spa, Belgium. GRSP’s annual road-safety event will be held 1-2 June at Hotel de la Source in Francorchamps.

Here are just a few of the success stories to be told:

• In Brazil, cities significantly reduce road-crash related death and injury rates — and hospital costs — through partnerships between city agencies, schools and the private sector.
• A regional government in northeastern Poland cuts its annual road crash deaths by nearly half in just five years after engaging actively in multi-sector partnership efforts.
• Two cities in China significantly reduce drinking and driving, and related deaths, thanks to a pilot project in which government, international agencies and private companies all contributed expertise and resources.

These are just a few examples of how the Global Road Safety Partnership, with the support and active engagement of Renault and other companies committed to fighting the global crisis of road crashes, helps save lives and livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries.

During the Spa event, GRSP will host open sessions and panels, in which leading corporate, government and civil society partners will present and discuss the concrete results of their partnership efforts.

“People will see and hear first-hand how and why road safety partnerships between governments, business and civil society are successful,” says Pieter Venter, Acting CEO of the Global Road Safety Partnership. “These examples show that quantifiable and sustainable reductions can be made in road-crash related death and injury, even as the number of people driving motorcycles and cars continues to climb.”

One year into the United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, hundreds of governments, humanitarian organizations and private companies are working together to solve this costly and avoidable, man-made crisis, which kills more than 1.3 million people each year and injures some 50 million.

Carlos Ghosn, Renault’s Chairman and Chief Executive officer, points to the importance of partnerships. “No single organization, government, business or humanitarian group can tackle or solve the road safety crisis alone. We must pull all of the levers available to us in order to make roads safer all over the planet particularly in emerging countries, where nearly 90 per cent of all road traffic accidents and deaths occur. Renault’s activities are directly linked to one of the pillars of the Decade of Action, making safer vehicles, and we are very proud to actively contribute to this vital global crusade.”

Among the themes covered in the presentations:

• How the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety has energized road safety actions based on partnership between sectors.
• How companies such as Michelin, Renault, Total, Shell and Toyota helped shape the future of road safety actions by creating the world’s largest jointly funded private sector project (The Global Road Safety Initiative, chaired by Renault) to save lives low- and middle-income countries.
• How numerous cities in Brazil involved in Global Road Safety Initiative projects have reduced death and injury due to partnership efforts.
• How the Save Our Lives project is making the link between road safety and sustainable mobility while helping to improve road safety management systems in Eastern Europe.
• How GRSP teams are involved in shaping legislation, enhancing road safety education and enforcement, and creating new partnership efforts in 35 countries around the world.
• How GRSP’s implementation of capacity building efforts through the Road Safety in Ten Countries programme (funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies) is helping countries better manage key risk factors such a speeding, drinking and driving, and seatbelt use.
• How speed-management and capacity-building in China are changing road behaviour.
• How Viet Nam is engaged in an ambitious campaign against drinking and driving.
• How Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies work to prevent road crashes.
• How a GRSP Partnership in Poland significantly reduced death and injury rates.

Road Safety Village

During the spa event, GRSP will also be featured prominently in Renault’s Road Safety Village, where it will host a display focusing on child safety for the estimated 100,000 people expected to attend the event. The GRSP stand will feature a variety of activities for parents and children:  a “be careful, be seen” tent in which children will see for themselves why it’s important to wear reflective clothing for better night visibility; “impact scales” that show the effect of speed on the human body; a demonstration on how to use a child restraint correctly and an arts corner, among other things.

European Union road-safety panel

During the annual meeting, GRSP and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) are sponsoring a panel discussion, focusing on the role of the European Union in international road safety. The high-level panel will consist of Parliamentarians, road-safety practitioners, corporate leaders and humanitarian actors. Questions will include:  how does the EU view its role in reducing road crashes and injuries in low- and middle-income countries? What are the EU’s priorities in international road safety? To register for the event, please contact: Elena Gil at elena.gil@etsc.eu