ARTBA applauds U.N. resolution on world road safety

The Washington, D.C.-based American Road & Transportation & Builders Association (ARTBA) praised the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly for its March 31 approval of a resolution aimed at alleviating the global road safety crisis in which 1.2 million deaths and 30-50 million serious injuries occur annually.

ARTBA had urged the U.S. government to support the measure.

In a March 28 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ARTBA President and CEO Pete Ruane wrote: “ARTBA members have been directly involved with the design, construction and maintenance of roadways around the world; including innovative improvements that protect roadway users even when driving errors take place. These design and hardware features that make roadways more ‘forgiving' are well known in many developed countries, but those features are yet to be added to many roadways in both developed and emerging nations…We believe the U.N. road safety resolution will be effective as it calls for a meeting of all government ministers responsible for road safety. Such an effort should draw the necessary attention and investment in road safety and injury prevention projects worldwide.”

The resolution urged member nations to strengthen their commitments to road safety by observing the annual “World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims” in December, organizing global road safety weeks and encouraging fleet-owning organizations in both the private and public sectors to develop and implement policies and practices that would reduce road-crash risks. A world conference on Road Safety is planned for next year. Visit the United Nations website at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2008/ga10694.doc.htm to learn more.

ARTBA has long been recognized as a national—and international—transportation safety leader. Among the recent key association initiatives:

• The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse: Managed by the ARTBA Transportation Development Foundation and housed at the Texas Transportation Institute in College Station, the Clearinghouse is the world's largest Internet (www.workzonesafety.org) resource on roadway construction safety “best practices,” laws, regulations, public awareness campaigns, products, training and educational materials. The facility handles more than 100,000 information requests annually from all 50 states and countries across the globe.
• Work Zone Safety Conferences: Since 1985, ARTBA has hosted a series of national and international conferences to promote safe practices and operations for workers, motorists, public officials and others involved in transportation construction.
• Executive Seminar on Roadway Safety: In recent years, ARTBA in partnership with the International Road Federation, with guidance from the World Bank, developed and hosted a series of international roadway safety seminars which focused on both infrastructure and behavioral safety for roadways. The policy-level “Executive Seminars on Roadway Safety” were held in Miami, Fla.; Cairo, Egypt, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Madrid, Spain.