PHA-Exchange> Seatbelts, safety measures could halve road deaths: Red Cross Vietnam has road deaths epidemic: WHO

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

 from Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> -----

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/22/2007&Cat=5&Num=4


GENEVA (AFP) -- Basic prevention measures like seatbelts, helmets and speed 
limits can cut the 
number of deaths in road accidents by up to half, the Red Cross said Friday as 
it joined a global 
road safety campaign.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched 
a guide for its 
national associations worldwide outlining priorities to cut an estimated 1.2 
million deaths a year 
and 50 million injuries on the world's roads.

"We must act now and this guide can be a real road map to save lives," said 
the guide's author, 
Gerard Lautredou. "If we worked in Africa to make sure people wear seatbelts 
and against speeding, 
we would halve the number of deaths in five years," the Red Cross road safety 
expert told journalists.

Red Cross priorities include wearing seatbelts or helmets for motorcyclists, 
as well as campaigns 
against speeding and drunk driving. Lautredou said death rates in road 
accidents had dropped by 20 
to 40 percent in a few years in countries that had implemented at least one of 
those measures. He 
called for action "without waiting for heads of states to be affected, like in 
Kenya where the 
president did a lot for road safety after he was involved in an accident."

The campaign is aimed at influencing the general public through the Red 
Cross's proximity as a 
health care provider in many countries, as well as at convincing individual 
governments to finance a 
coherent road safety policy in their countries.

The World Health Organization also called for Vietnam to minimize the 
country's huge human loss in 
traffic accidents, which has become a national epidemic.

Vietnam reports one of the world's highest road death tolls, with 33 
fatalities a day, resulting in 
more than 12,300 victims last year, according to the National Traffic Safety 
Committee.

"Traffic accidents in Vietnam have reached epidemic proportions," said Hans 
Troedsson, WHO director 
in Vietnam, at a Hanoi conference to launch the inaugural United Nations 
Global Road Safety Week. 
"Road safety is not just a public health issue, but an economic and social 
issue," he said, citing 
an Asian Development Bank estimate that 885 million dollars is lost from 
Vietnam's economy every 
year because of traffic accidents.

Few of the 85 million population wear helmets although there are about 18 
million registered 
motorbikes on the streets. About 40 percent of the country's total severe road 
traffic crashes have 
been caused by youths aged between 15 and 24, who account for 20 percent of 
the population, he added.

Transport minister Ho Nghia Dung quoted a survey by Ho Chi Minh City's Cho Ray 
hospital, saying 
about 85 percent of traffic accidents have involved motorcyclists.

The United Nations is holding its first "Global Road Safety Week" from next 
Monday.


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