INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

ON THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN IMPROVING

TRAFFIC SAFETY ONLOCAL AND REGIONAL ROADS

Held under the Auspices of Mr. Trajko Veljanovski, President of the Parliament of the
Republic of Macedonia

Organized by the Republic Council for Road Traffic Safety of Macedonia

in collaboration with La Prévention Routière Internationale PRI

21-22 May 2014, Skopje-Macedonia

Opening Speech by Joop Goos, PRI President

Mr. Veljanovski,
Mr. Angelovski,

Dear participants, dear colleagues, dear friends, representatives of the media, ladies
and gentlemen.

Good Morning!
With pleasure I welcome you to this International Conference on the Role of Local
Government and Municipalities in improving Traffic Safety on Local and Regional
Roads. The Conference is held under the auspices of the President of the
Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Trajko Veljanovski.
We are very honoured with this.
I would like to start by expressing my warm thanks and appreciation to the Republic
Council for Road Traffic Safety of Macedonia, to Nikola Angelovski, President of the
Council, to Ljupco Straveski, Director, to Mile Dimitrovski, Chairman of the Scientific
Committee of the Council and to their team. Organising this Conference shows their
devotion to the improvement of road safety in Macedonia and the region.

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In 2013 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Status Report on
Road Safety. The Report shows that each year over 50 million people got seriously
injured on our roads. 1,24 million people die as a result of road crashes.
That’s 3500 deaths per day or 150 an hour. Nearly 3 people get killed on the roads
every single minute. Since the first road crash victim in the year 1896 – this is 118
years ago – almost 38 Million peoples have died in traffic.

The risk of dying as a result of a road injury is the highest in the African Region
(24,1 road traffic deaths per 100.000 population) and the lowest in the European
Region (10,3 road traffic deaths per 100.000 population). In the Eastern
Mediterranean Region this number is 21,3 and scores a second place after the
African Region.

These terrifying figures are the tip of the iceberg only. Traffic safety is not just about
statistics. It is also and above all about emotions and grief of the loss of a beloved
one, a family member, a neighbour, a boyfriend, a friend from school. About peoples
who got handicapped for the rest of their lives after a road crash.
Traffic safety is not a matter of anonymous statistics, it is about peoples we know.

50% of all road traffic deaths are among vulnerable users. 22% are pedestrian, 5%
cyclist and 23% motorcyclist. In the Eastern Mediterranean countries 28% of the
road traffic deaths are among pedestrians and 3% among cyclists.

Last week the Global Report on Alcohol and Health 2014 was launched. This WHO
report shows that globally 3,3 million deaths per year are alcohol related. A
significant part of these fatalities are on our roads. The effects of alcohol impairment
in traffic are magnified when combined with fatigue or the use of drugs.
Young and novice drivers who drink have a greatly increased risk of a crash
compared to more experienced drivers.
In general road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people,
aged 15-29 years.

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In our Conference we focus on Road Safety on Local and Regional Roads and the
Role Local Government and Municipalities could play to improve road safety in cities
and villages. And also two sessions are scheduled about drinking and driving and
about young drivers.
With this program we focus on the major topics: vulnerable road users, like
pedestrians and cyclists, drivers, in particular young ones, drinking and driving,
speeding and distraction.
A majority of the road traffic deaths among vulnerable road users occur on local and
regional roads.

How can we bring down the number of road crash victims?

First of all road safety must be priority number 1. However, in many countries road
safety faces budget cuts. Achieving the target of the Decade of Action for Road
safety of minus 50% of traffic deaths by the year 2020, means 5 million road traffic
victims and 50 million non-fatal injuries would be avoided and also means a saving
of 3 trillion USD. This shows that especially in times of economic recession costs for
road safety work should be seen as investments, which will be earned back later.
Investments, which will bring down the number of road traffic victims and the yearly
societal costs of traffic crashes.
This asks for a strong political commitment and a political decision to allocate
substantial and multi-year budgets for road safety.

Secondly, to improve road safety on local and regional roads a strong alliance is
needed between local government, municipalities, police, NGOs, schools, parents
and road users. All working and behaving in the frame of a National Road Safety
Plan with regional and local programs and activities.

Citizens must be part of the team must. Without active involvement of citizens no
sustainable results will be achieved. Citizens can provide input about unsafe
locations and can assist in local road safety projects as volunteers. Dutch authorities
and NGOs are using an innovative tool for smartphones, iPad, laptops to collect the
input of citizens and road users about unsafe spots and to collect a description of

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the location where the crash happened. The software behind the system integrates
objective data of accidents, speed data and the input of citizens.
Police enforcement is key for the improvement of road safety at local and regional
level. A combination of enforcement with campaigns leads to additional positive
effects. Efficient deployment of police personnel can be realized by speed cameras.
An important condition is that the cameras are part of a coherent system of an
enforcement policy and practice
.
We all know that most of the road crash victims among the vulnerable road users,
are inside urban areas. Starting point must be that the living space of peoples and in
particular of children must be a safe haven without crashes and victims. Safe school
routes, school- and living areas with a speed limit of 30 kph and safe pedestrian
crossings and cycle paths in other parts of the traffic area are key. If our cities and
villages are safe for vulnerable road users, they are safe for all road users. In
situations where slow and fast traffic meet, balanced or “on demand” measures
should be applied to achieve optimal positive results. Except a safe infrastructure,
also good education on schools and in driving schools is highly important. To
improve road safety of young drivers, new ways of education are developed. Parents
can assist teachers in the school education, citizens can act as volunteers in projects
and it would be wonderful if young peoples, like students, will act as ambassadors
for road safety.
To improve road safety of young drivers we need more advanced training schemes.
The combination of age related factors (attitude to risk taking behaviour) and the lack
of driving experience results in a high involvement of young people in car crashes.
This is a challenge to develop new ways of driver education.

Without any doubt we will learn the coming days from many experiences this these
fields of action.

I wish all of us a fruitful conference with lively discussions in the stimulating

ambiance of Skopje.

Thank you
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