Today was a turning point in the battle to combat a growing epidemic of highway accidents and deaths. The United Nations, in cooperation with many countries across the world, launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety—a 10 year plan to reduce highway deaths by 5 million and injuries from highway accidents by 50 million. The focus of the activities in the United States was in Washington, D.C., where highway safety professionals, legislators , business leaders and individuals met to unveil the coordinated efforts to stem the rising tide of highway death and injuries. Those efforts will include legislation, education, engineering to make highways and automobiles safer and targeted behavioral changes.
Highway crashes are now recognized as an international public health threat, similar to diseases, which requires a multi-faceted approach to save millions of lives. Norman Mineta, former United States Secretary of Transportation and Chairman of Make Roads Safe North America, Thomas Frieden, M.D., Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator from Minnesota, John L. Mica, US. House of Representatives, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and David Strickland, Administrator, national Highway Traffic safety Administration(NHTSA) were among those who spoke at the day’s events.
Family members of those who have been killed in highway accidents were recognized for their efforts to promote highway safety, including Joel Feldman and his wife, Dianne Anderson from Springfield. PA, whose daughter Casey was killed by a distracted driver in July of 2009. Casey’s story is part of a public service video the Feldman family created and produced for the U.S. Dept of Transportation and which is featured on its website “Faces of Distracted Driving.” The 3 minute video can be viewed at http://fastlane.dot.gov/
The program was coordinated by NOYS (National Organization for Youth Safety) and NOYS student leaders from across the country were featured in presentations. New data was revealed indicating that from May through September, teens are twice as likely to die in the US from traffic accidents than in any other months. Three new public service videos focused on traffic safety starring Sesame Street’s Grover were screened. The official road safety symbol of the campaign-the yellow tag- was revealed and displayed simultaneously in cities across the US and the world. For more information see http://www.decadeofaction.org/
