The new UN resolution on road safety
Road crashes kill more than 1.3 million people each year and injuring as many as 50 million people a year, with 90 per cent of these casualties occurring in developing countries. Is not a surprise that road safety is recognized as a humanitarian crisis in the global scenario.
Given the current situation, last 12 April, in New York, the UN General Assembly adopted a new resolution on ‘Improving Global Road Safety’ and announced the launch of a new UN Road Safety Trust Fund aimed at accelerating “progress in improving global road safety by bridging the gaps in the mobilization of resources for effective action at all levels”. UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is secretariat for the trust fund.
In the other hand, the resolution on road safety calls for host of measures to prevent road accidents and to minimizing resulting damage. One of the measures of the resolution advocates the need of action to implement vehicle safety regulations.
In fact, it reaffirms the role and importance of the United Nations legal instruments on road safety, such as the 1958 and 1998 agreements on technical vehicle regulations, and the 1997 agreement on periodic technical inspection of vehicles in facilitating road safety at the global, regional and national levels.
Moreover the UN invites the MS to consider establishing mechanisms for the periodic assessment of vehicles in order to ensure that all new and in-use vehicles comply with basic vehicle safety regulations.