The 3rd edition of the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety took place on 18 and 19 February in Stockholm, Sweden. ERTICO joined United Nations representatives, the European Commission, Transport Ministers from around the globe, as well as a long list of key road safety stakeholders to continue the fight against road accidents and fatalities.
Since the first event in Moscow in 2009, the United Nation’s Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety has been gathering transport representatives from around the world to explore solutions to reduce road fatalities. With transport safety being one of the main pillars in its strategy, ERTICO was present at the conference to contribute and support the global strategy for road safety.
“Road safety has been one of the main pillars in ERTICO for almost 30 years”, said CEO Jacob Bangsgaard. “25.000 persons still lose their lives on European roads every year, and more than 100.000 are seriously injured so it will continue to be a priority for us. Together with our Partners, we have been playing a key role in terms of bringing new technologies to market, such as ADAS systems and eCall. We will definitely continue to do our part to advance smart mobility solutions, especially in urban mobility, and further develop cooperative, connected and automated mobility”, he added.
Indeed, numbers show that there is still much to be done to improve road safety. According to the World Health Organization and the United Nations, there are 1.35 million deaths each year or 3,700 every day on a global level. Such numbers have led to the decision to make road safety part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the UN Decade of Action for road safety 2010-2020 had the ambitious aim of reducing road traffic deaths & injuries by 50%.
The Stockholm conference confirmed that urban mobility solutions and automation are indeed part of the solution and ERTICO will continue its actions. Urban mobility solutions will in the future be connected, automated and electric and will be focusing more on vulnerable road users, while support systems and automation will help correct human errors, which are by far the most common cause for road accidents.
Find out more about ERTICO’s urban and automated and connected mobility strategy ertico.com !
Photo credits: Mikael Ullén
