WHO to mark UN Global Road Safety Week

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is to mark the third United Nations (UN) Global Road Safety Week, slated for May 4 to May 10.

The event is to highlight WHO 10 key strategies for keeping children safe on the road include: control speed, reduce drinking and driving, use helmets for bicyclists and motorcyclists, and restrain children in vehicles.

The rest are improve children’s ability to see and be seen, enhance road infrastructure, adapt vehicle design, implement graduated driver licensing, provide appropriate care for injured children and supervise children around roads.

A statement issued by Laura Sminkey of the WHO Department for Management of Non-communicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday stated.

According to the statement around 186,300 children under 18 years die from road traffic crashes annually.

It said rates of road traffic death were three times higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.

According to the WHO, road traffic injuries are the leading killer of children from 15-17 years worldwide, and also road traffic injury ranks among the top four causes of death for children over the age of five years

It said two times as many boys as girls die in road traffic crashes; of children from 0-19 years killed on the road, 38 per cent were pedestrians, 36 per cent vehicle occupants, 14 per cent motorcyclists, and the remainder include drivers, cyclists and others.

The third UN Global Road Safety Week focuses on children and road safety. A global milestone in the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, the week seeks to highlight the plight of children on the world’s roads and generate action to better ensure their safety.