Road traffic injury prevention

In November of last year, ministers from over 70 countries attended the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, hosted by the Russian Federation and held in Moscow. The resulting “Moscow Declaration” calls upon the United Nations to declare a “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–20”. In addition to promoting the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) report on road traffic injury prevention, it also highlights the particular needs of vulnerable road users—pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and users of public transit—who contribute at least half of road traffic mortality.1 The declaration was a welcome acknowledgement to members of the injury prevention community who have long recognised the disproportionate burden of traffic injury borne in low and middle-income countries. As those countries invest in transport infrastructure in a push to reap the economic benefits of motorisation, their share of the road traffic injury burden seems destined to increase in both absolute and …