[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2912-E2913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FIRST GLOBAL MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON ROAD SAFETY
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HON. ROBERT WEXLER
of florida
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Mr. WEXLER. Madam Speaker, as a founding co-Chair of the
Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety, I rise today to praise the
highly encouraging efforts and outcomes of the First Global Ministerial
Conference on Road Safety, which took place in Moscow, Russia, on
November 19 and 20, 2009.
This important conference was the result of a five-year effort by a
global community of stakeholders from multilateral and bilateral
institutions, from governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and
from academia and civil society. These groups are dedicated to raising
international awareness and to mobilizing a global response to
advancing road safety.
Hosted by President Dmitry Medvedev and the Russian Federation, this
conference brought together transportation ministers, health ministers,
non-governmental organizations, and experts from across the globe and
reflected a growing understanding among nations to seek opportunities
to cooperate on tackling one of the world's most severe problems
today--the epidemic of road crash deaths and injuries.
The statistics for this epidemic are staggering: 1.3 million people
are killed annually on the world's roads and 50 million more are
injured. The number of deaths each year is the equivalent of 10 jumbo
jets crashing every day, and the toll is continuing to increase
dramatically. At the current rate of growth, road crashes will be the
fifth leading cause of death overall by the year 2030, and the first
leading cause of death for children aged five and older by 2020,
rivaling the top and often more well-known global health epidemics.
Road crashes do not discriminate by age, class, gender, race, or
nationality. Nor do they respect the bounds of geography. In the United
States alone the death toll is an estimated 44,000 people annually, and
road crashes have become the leading cause of death among Hispanics
under 34 years of age. Meanwhile, in some African countries, up to half
of all hospital surgical beds are occupied by road crash victims, while
in others the fatalities rank second only to HIV/AIDS.
Along with the unfathomable human cost of road crashes, there are
also grave economic costs to individuals, families, and communities. It
is estimated that road crashes cost $518 billion globally each year. In
developing countries, road crashes have a dramatic impact on their
fragile economies, costing an estimated $100 billion, and often
exceeding the total amount received by these countries in development
assistance. Furthermore, road crashes place a preventable strain on
first responder services, health care services, and health insurance
services, as many victims require extensive, and expensive, critical
care, as well as follow-up care and rehabilitation. In countries where
a primary bread-winner is killed or injured, or must care for the
injured, this can destroy livelihoods and devastate communities.
The First Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow addressed
each of these issues, as well as many other key components of the road
safety epidemic, in an intensive two days of plenary sessions and panel
discussions during which high level delegates from various nations and
organizations shared experiences, ideas, and best practices.
I would like to commend the U.S. delegation, which included
representation from the Department of State, the Department of
Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
other partner state and federal agencies, for its robust participation
and high level representation throughout the Conference. As the first
global forum for road safety, this conference was truly an historic
event. I am pleased that the U.S. delegation took a strong leadership
role in addressing U.S. road safety goals and objectives, as well as in
working constructively with the Conference to establish new benchmarks
for best practices and road traffic injury prevention, as announced in
the Moscow Declaration.
The Moscow Declaration reinforces governmental leadership and
guidance on road safety, sets regional casualty reduction targets, and
offers a new framework for international cooperation on global road
safety. It declares the decade 2011-2020 as the ``Decade of Action for
Road Safety'' with the goal of stabilizing and reducing the forecast
level of global road deaths. Finally, the Declaration encourages the
U.N. General Assembly to assent to the goals and policies it proposes.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of all those who helped
make the First Ministerial Conference on Global Road Safety a success.
I applaud the Russian Federation for taking the initiative of hosting
this critical conference in Moscow. I would also like to congratulate
the U.S. delegation and other participants from around the world for
having demonstrated a promising commitment to the important goal of
reducing road deaths on a global scale.
I and the rest of the Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety look
forward to maintaining a fruitful dialogue with the Russian Federation,
other governments, the international NGO community and other
organizations, with the aim of finding further ways to improve road
safety, and I am hopeful that the Congress as a whole will continue to
do so as well. Finally, I encourage the Obama Administration and the
American delegation to continue their strong leadership in ensuring
that
[[Page E2913]]
the casualty reduction targets and the road safety initiatives detailed
in the Moscow Declaration are accomplished, both at home and abroad.
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