Road Safety Week: How you can become a leader; it's theme and significance

Celebrated every two years, this fifth edition of the UN Global Road Safety Week (6-12 May 2019) highlights the need for strong leadership for road safety. This Week will focus on this year's theme, leadership for road safety.

With an annual 1.35 million fatalities, road traffic deaths continue to rise. Road traffic injuries are now the leading killer of children and young people aged 5-29 years. These deaths are an unacceptable price to pay for mobility, especially because proven solutions exist to tackle this health and development challenge by raising awareness about road safety this week and in days to come.

Among the solutions is more effective leadership to advance road safety in countries and communities, achieve road safety targets and save lives.

THIS ROAD SAFETY WEEK, BECOME A LEADER!

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If the SDGs are achieved, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030. A specific stand-alone target (3.6) in the Health Goal to reduce road traffic fatalities was adopted:

"By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents."

The governments have set a very ambitious target to save lives on our roads, and it's our job to make sure they stick to it.

The Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week highlights that everyone can be a leader for road safety!

As parents, teachers, students, employees, volunteers and concerned citizens, we can all play a role in engaging with others to advocate for safe roads. We can highlight specific risks on the road, bring these to the attention of community leaders, and demand that they take the concrete measures needed to address them. When a community makes the right to a safe journey a priority, everybody wins!

#SPEAKUP CAMPAIGN

Welcome to the new campaign website! The theme is leadership and everybody can be a leader. Are you ready to #SpeakUp for #RoadSafety?Log on and: 1) Assess your journey2) Record your demands 3) Urge decision makers to make a pledge.https://t.co/o4mwkzsbTC pic.twitter.com/ww0h0s9JA0

— UN Road Safety Week (@UNGRSW) February 6, 2019

The #SpeakUp campaign calls for stronger leadership to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries. It also highlights that we can all in our own personal capacities #SpeakUp and be a leader for road safety. The road safety target within the Global Goals is only going to be attained if we fight for it.