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Feb. 10, 2020

STAFF REPORTER

2 min read

Ministers to attend global road safety summit

Ministers to attend global road safety summit

WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

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MASERU - Government ministers and senior officials from over 100 countries including Lesotho will meet in Stockholm, Sweden from February 19 to 20 to discuss new steps to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by half by 2030.

This is in line with global targets agreed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s most recent global status report on road safety states that road traffic injuries are now the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged between five and 29.
The report shows that more than half of all road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists and that the risk of a road traffic death remains three times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries.

It further states that as many as 50 million people experience non-fatal road injuries, which impose human suffering and major economic losses.
 

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WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the conference is an opportunity for the world to embrace a new agenda to radically reduce the number of lives lost on the roads.

The plan Dr Ghebreyesus says is also to re-think how to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all.

He says the fact that an estimated 1.35 million lives are lost every year due to road traffic collisions is an outrage hence an unacceptable price to pay for mobility.
 

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