Vietnam is highly appreciated for its helmet wearing campaign.
It has become a tradition that November 18th of each year is chosen by the United Nations as the world day to remember victims of road traffic accidents.
Giving helmets to students. (Photo: Thanh Vu/VNA)
This year, on this occasion, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a message to all member countries, calling on the international community to do its utmost to minimize the number of deaths and injuries caused by road traffic accidents.
In this message, Mr. Ban Ki-moon praised Vietnam for its propaganda and mobilization of people to wear helmets when participating in road traffic, thanks to which the number of people complying with this measure has tripled, from 30% to 90%, and has brought about clear results.
He said that in just the first 10 months of this year, nearly 1.2 million people worldwide died in road traffic accidents, and millions were injured.
Mr. Ban Ki-moon cited a report from the United Nations' authorities saying that in addition to the number of deaths, on average, every year around the world, about 50 million people are injured for life due to road traffic accidents.
And what is more worrying is that this type of traffic has caused the most deaths for teenagers aged 15 to 25, with an average of about 400,000 young people dying each year while participating in road traffic, meaning that every day the world's roads claim the lives of more than 1,000 teenagers under the age of 25.
He reiterated the World Health Organization (WHO) report, warning that if the international community does not take drastic and effective measures, by 2030, traffic accident victims will be among the top five groups of people dying in the world for various reasons.
Mr. Ban Ki-moon recalled that the United Nations has adopted a 10-year Action Program (2011-2020) to ensure road traffic safety, by applying all necessary measures, such as promoting traffic laws, upgrading roads, installing more signs, setting up more ambulance stations on major traffic routes, etc., to reduce at least 5 million deaths.
He appreciated the fact that many member countries of the United Nations have implemented this program well, for example, Chile has a regulation requiring everyone in a car, regardless of the vehicle, to wear a seat belt, or China, New Zealand, Brazil... have introduced a provision prohibiting drinking alcohol while participating in traffic, along with heavy penalties.
Likewise, in response to the above action program of the United Nations, in recent years, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Pakistan... have established more first aid stations on roads with high traffic density, thanks to which the number of people who died due to not receiving timely first aid in accidents has decreased significantly.
Warning about the increasing number of road traffic accidents as well as the increasingly serious level of damage, especially to people caused by these accidents, Mr. Ban Ki-moon called on countries to concentrate all efforts and take practical measures to prevent traffic accidents, and each person must improve their understanding and awareness when participating in traffic to protect themselves and the community./.
According to (VietnamPlus)-LC
