By 2015 road crashes are predicted by the WHO to be the leading cause of premature death and disability for children aged five and above. This epidemic on wheels - which already kills on the scale of malaria - will continue to rob even more families of their loved ones and their livelihoods, as the number of those killed doubles to well over two million per year by 2030.
Five million lives: this is what is at stake in a Decade of Action for Road Safety. Five million people, whose potential can be realized, not wasted; five million families that need never know the sudden loss and lifelong grief of a road crash bereavement. This is a prize well worth investing in, safe in the knowledge that the returns, human and economic, will far outweigh the investment cost.
We have the tools, the knowledge, to undertake this work. Now we need to see the political will to implement a Decade of Action. The United Nations has recognized that the global road injury epidemic is serious enough to warrant General Assembly resolutions and a first Ministerial level conference.
Namibia was part of all part these initiatives and can recall all the requirements to achieve the goals set over the period from 2011 until 2020.
In view of the above situation, the National Road Safety Council and its stakeholders are set to deliberate on various ways on making the road safety situation better through the proper alignment of all programmes to the Safe Systems Approach as advocated for in the Global Decade of Action Plan.
The year 2013 marked the hosting of the 3rd Annual Road Safety Conference, following the 1st and the 2nd Annual Road Safety Conferences in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The conference serves as a platform that brings together leading researchers, practitioners and policy-makers (local and international) to share knowledge about best practices in road safety. The platform enables delegates to make substantial recommendations and for the NRSC to report back on the progress made on the previous conferences' recommendations. The 3rd Conference provided an opportunity for stakeholders to refocus efforts on the implementation of the Namibian Chapter of the Decade of Action.
