ITF and FIA Launch New Road Safety Co-operation

21 May 2014

This is a three-year programme agreed to improve the collection and use of traffic crash data in joint effort for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. The new partnership which will focus on the improvement of road safety data and its analysis was agreed today between the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the International Transport Forum (ITF).

FIA President Jean Todt signed the agreement together with the ITF Secretary-General José Viegas at an official ceremony at the ITF’s Annual Summit of Transport Ministers in Leipzig, Germany on 21 May 2014.

The initiative aims to support the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety in its goal of significantly reducing traffic-related deaths and injuries by 2020. Around 1.3 million people die in road crashes every year and around 50 million are seriously injured. The global death toll from traffic is expected to rise to 2 million annually with a further 80 million serious injuries by 2020 unless action is taken.

The co-operation will focus on improving data collection, the analysis of which underpins road safety policy decisions.

Among other road safety activities, the ITF, through its International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD), has worked since 2008 to organise twinnings between interested countries to improve the collection and analysis of road safety data. The twinnings have brought together countries such as Argentina/Spain, Cambodia/Netherlands and Jamaica/UK. The successful twinning between Spain and Argentina spawned the IberoAmerican Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI), a regional road safety collaboration that brings together 22 countries. The ITF also publishes the IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report, a performance review, and manages the IRTAD road safety database, with data from 32 countries.

The FIA Action for Road Safety Campaign was launched in May 2011 to support the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. The campaign has involved:

• Advocacy at the highest levels to push leaders to commit to road safety both nationally and globally;
•  Supporting action by the 236 FIA Member Clubs in 139 countries worldwide to educate and advocate for safer roads, vehicles and behaviour on the ground. So far, 90 road safety projects in over 50 countries have been funded by the FIA Road Safety Grant Programme;

FIA has also launched worldwide road safety campaigns and programs, either alone or with partners, both institutional and private. For example, together with Michelin, FIA has promoted 10 Golden Rules for Road Safety worldwide.