ROAD SAFETY and breakdown organisation GEM Motoring Assist is using the forthcoming UN Global Road Safety Week as an opportunity to encourage all drivers and riders to consider the risks they face (and the risks they pose) on their daily journeys, and to find ways of reducing those risks.
The Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week, starting next Monday 6 May, seeks to promote understanding of what a safer future could look like, and to mobilise action among road users that will lead to safer road journeys worldwide.
Figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that road traffic injuries are now the number one killer of people aged 5 to 29 years. This burden is disproportionately carried by pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Drastic action is needed to put measures in place to meet any future global target that might save lives, says the WHO.
Neil Worth, GEM Motoring Assist’s road safety officer, said: “As road users, we all tend to underestimate the risks we face – as well as overestimating our ability to deal with them. That makes us all more vulnerable than we may realise.
“GEM’s message for UN Global Road Safety Week is that we all have an opportunity to make a difference. We can all commit to reducing risk and improving safety on road journeys, as long as we don’t always see it as someone else’s problem.
“So let’s celebrate the opportunity we all have to make a difference. Let’s commit to make changes, and develop an attitude where risk is reduced. Let’s stop criticising others and instead see what we could be doing to improve safety on our road journeys – safety for ourselves and for those who share the roads with us.
“The good news is that we can all start with our very next journey.â€
