The 5th UN Global Road Safety Week is the most high-profile road safety event on the global calendar before we convene for the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Road Safety to be held in Sweden in February 2020.
The theme for the 5th UN Global Road Safety Week was ‘Leadership’ with the tagline #SpeakUp for #RoadSafety. The Week, was held 6-12 May 2019, aimed to provide an opportunity for civil society to generate demands for strong leadership for road safety, especially around concrete, evidence-based interventions; and inspire decision-makers to act by showcasing examples of strong leadership for road safety within various types of institutions.
Very recent data shows that last year (Persian year starts at March 21) in Iran 17183 road users died and 367440 of them injured in road traffic crashes that means for the second year we’re observing an increase after ten years of decrease.
Whether we travel as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists or users of private motor vehicles or public transport, as individuals we can #SpeakUp for road safety. We can behave safely on the road, serve as role models for others, especially young people; advocate for better laws and law enforcement and support those who have been affected by road traffic crashes.
Like previous UNGRSW’s Road Safety Pioneers planned different activities including:
- Asking famous footballers and artists to support the campaign
- Creating 2 videos (Watch First Video) (Watch Second Video)
- Translating the information, toolkits, etc. on the global site and ask the relevant organizations to plan an activity for the week
- Inviting journalists and TV reporters to cover our activities
- A Road Safety Workshop for local traffic experts
- Activities at some schools and Children Traffic Park
- SpeakUp campaign activity at Kharazmi University . The program was announced at the university campus and the students attended to conduct it. Furthermore the department of civil engineering advocated this movement towards safer roads.
Here there are some highlights of our activities:
Famous Persian musician, Keyvan Saket, Iranian National team ex-footballer and a great head coach today “Yahya Gol Mohammadi”, great director Narges Abyar, and other reknowned artists Mohammad Solooki and Fariba Kowsari joined us to support #ungrsw Slogan: #speakup for #RoadSafety
To grab people’s attention with our members we prepared some thematic photos that fortunately found them eye-catching for Etienne Krug, Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Department for Management of Non-communicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention (NVI), Susanna Zammataro Director General, International Road Federation (IRF), Matthew Baldwin. EU Commission Deputy Director-General for Mobility and Transport and Zolka mandela, Health issue activist
Under six years old children today after attending the traffic safety education learning, asked everyone to #SpeakUp for their safety! Children by their colored handprint signed a petition and asked the decision makers to provide “safe” and not “safer” journeys for them. Safe walking, safe cycling and safe transport is every kid’s right! In the second day of #UNGRSW the petition that was signed by children delivered to and signed by the general director of Mashhad Traffic & Transportation Org. #SpeakUp for quality #roadsafety education at schools It should be part of the curriculum and school teachers must be aware of the importance of their role!
Cyclists signed a petition and demanded safer streets for cycling from Mashhad City decision makers. The petition was delivered to Dr.Baharvand Head of Transport at Mashhad City Council and he took the pledge to set higher priority for safe cycling.
SpeakUp photo booth for public at Mashhad City Park, an activity for the 5th #UNGRSW People also signed a petition and asked safer mobility for all. The petition delivered to Dr.Kalaee Mayor of Mashhad City and he took the pledge to set higher priority for safe mobility.. NGOs are bridges to ease the transport of public message of safety needs to decision makers.
Mashhad City council members supported #UNGRSW #SpeakUp for #RoadSafety
#RoadSafety experts demanded for funding, crash data collection system, interventions evaluation, enforcement of laws and safer cars
In the 6th day of #UNGRSW we asked public to look at 45 famous crash victims faces including athletes, scientists, poets, singers,etc. It’s the exact no. of road deaths per day in Iran. They are dearest ones for their family!
A challenging road safety session with top Road Ministry managers, media, EMS, police and traffic experts at last day of #UNGRSW. At the end everyone committed to do their best for one specific road safety topic by sticking it on the road safety tree.
Our activities for the 5th #UNGRSW led to an invitation from the office of Deputy of Transport of Road Ministry and we succeeded to talk about safety demands and also we asked him to talk to Minister to participate at #Sweden2020 high-level conference.
#SpeakUp for #RoadSafety is continuing! Our sessions at Universities have been started! The first at Municipality University of Mashhad! Fruitful discussion with students and professors on traffic safety challenges, solutions and demands!
