Sakhalin Road Safety – A Timeline

One of the key elements of the Global Road Safety Partnership’s strategy is creating and supporting sustainable road safety partnerships between business, government and civil society. The story of Sakhalin, Russia’s largest island, is an outstanding example of this strategy at work.

March 2005: In response to a dramatic growth in the number of road traffic crashes on Sakhalin, Sakhalin Energy held a ‘Road Safety on Sakhalin Roads’ workshop. The workshop was supported by the Sakhalin Oblast Government and the Global Road Safety Partnership. More than 60 representatives from 25 government organizations and businesses participated in this vital first step.

June 2005: Representatives of the Sakhalin Oblast Government, the Sakhalin Oblast Department of Internal Affairs, business and community signed an agreement establishing the Sakhalin Road Safety Partnership (SRSP), thereby officially committing to work together to improve road safety on the island.

2005 – 2011: The Projects

‘Choose Life — Buckle Up!’
The first project implemented by Sakhalin Energy under the banner of the Sakhalin Road Safety Partnership was a long-term seat-belt promotional campaign called ‘Choose Life — Buckle Up!’. Since the inception of the project, seat-belt wearing rates have increased from 3% to over 85%.

‘A Safe Road to School’
Beginning in 2006 in response to the problem of a high number of road crashes and injuries involving children on Sakhalin roads, the project ‘A Safe Road to School’ was developed and implemented with the aims of:

• reducing the road crash injury rate amongst children;
• uniting the efforts of road police, teachers and parents;
• increasing road safety awareness in the area.

Under this project, the schools of the Sakhalin Oblast received visual aids and safe school route maps indicating high risk areas. Low cost infrastructure measures were implemented around selected schools to improve the safety of pedestrian crossings in particular. A video was produced drawing parents’ attention to the way children see various road dangers and making recommendations on how to teach children to take safety precautions on the roads. Informational campaigns were also launched teaching children how to make a safe route to school and how to ride a bicycle safely.

‘First Aid to Road Crash Victims at Pre-hospital Stage’
International experience shows that medical aid provided at the scene saves lives and reduces injury severity. SRSP is implementing a programme to improve and increase first aid to road crash victims by training police and nurses and equipping mobile police vehicles with first aid kits. Every year, more than 70 professionals are trained.

Coordination
In 2011, the Sakhalin Road Safety Partnership was transformed into the Sakhalin Road Safety Council to align the efforts of stakeholders even more greatly with priority actions identified in the government’s road safety programme.

The Council is coordinated by the Sakhalin Oblast Government, Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sakhalin Oblast, the Road Safety Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sakhalin Oblast and Sakhalin Energy. A wide range of community stakeholders are involved in implementing programmes including educational institutions, medical institutions, the Ministry for Emergency Situations, as well as regional and local non-profit organizations. The Global Road Safety Partnership retains a close working relationship with the Council.

In terms of results, the Partnership, now Council, has contributed to a measurable improvement of the road safety situation on Sakhalin Island. According to the Road Police Department of the Sakhalin Oblast, the number of road crashes is in continual decline. In 2011 the number of crashes decreased by 9.4%, the number of fatalities decreased by 2.4%, and the number injured decreased 7.9% in comparison to 2010.