Abraham Fisseha, AfricaNews reporter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The Second African Road Safety Conference opened in Addis, with somber calls to turn Africa's road carnage statistics around through the implementation of a proposed African Action Plan for the Decade 2011-2020. The Plan will be reviewed this week by the hundreds of participants in attendance.
“Poor road networks, inadequate road signage, limited knowledge on road safety, poorly enforced legislation and the poor emergency-preparedness by medical facilities.” Mr. Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said
“That road crashes are the second leading cause of death for the able body age group in African countries and “they exact a heavy toll on African economies.”
He underscores the urgency to find out a solution “In Ethiopia, a 2008 estimate of economic costs (attributed to road crashes) conservatively put this at close to $80 million per year,” he said.
Haddock noted that in this regard, recent declarations by Ministers have helped to push for national attention and to mitigate the “growing tragedy of deaths and injuries on African roads." The outcomes of such meetings have been incorporated in the Global Road Safety Action Plan. In addition, efforts by NGOs and the private sector have contributed to increased road safety awareness
“In our region where 50% of the population is below the age of 16, road crashes therefore exact a heavy human toll on the continent's younger members and robs Africa of its future human capital,” he said and added: “The road safety agenda has become urgent, particularly in Africa - we will have to rally together to reduce road safety fatalities and injuries
Testimonies by road crash victims from Ethiopia and South Africa’s Maputo Corridor brought home the gut-wrenching impact of the carnage and the reality of the statistics shared by Hamdok: Globally more than 1.2 million people die in road crashes around the world and 65% of these deaths are pedestrians who do not own cars. Much worse, 35% percent of pedestrian deaths are innocent children. The majority of these deaths – about 70 percent – occur in developing countries.
“We strongly believe that we have to act together to develop sustainable policies and action points if we are to realize a safe traffic environment for our continent,” he said. “Through the African Action Plan, Africa will have a voice.”
Hamdok lauded the efforts made by the private sector in road safety campaigns and said: “The private sector has the capacity to greatly extend our efforts to serve communities, more especially young people, for this is what secures our future as the human race.
Ethiopia’s President Girma Wolde Giorgis welcomed the African Action Plan and said it would assist in “promoting awareness of the huge economic losses and human suffering caused by road crashes.” Ethiopia, said the President, has developed a 10-year strategic plan.
The Road Safety Conference is one in a series of similar forums dating back to 1997 and organized by the ECA.
Background: The African Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020 - is a comprehensive document containing five broad issues that will form the basis for the outcomes of the discussions: Road Safety Management; Safer Roads and Mobility; Safer Vehicles; Safer Road Users; Post-crash Response.
In partnership with Total-Ethiopia, and as part of its annual support to the national road safety campaign, ECA produced an illustrated educational guide that was distributed to 20,000 primary and elementary schools in Ethiopia in mid-2011.
The conference is being convened by ECA; Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP); Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF); Government of Ethiopia; and International Road Federation (IRF) in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the World Bank
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