The Sydney Harbour Bridge is lit up in yellow to highlight United Nation’s Global Road Safety Week.
The road safety campaign was launched on Monday at the Sydney Opera House by infrastructure and transport federal minister Darren Chester.
“Over the week, governments from across the globe will meet with senior policy makers from a range of organisations to find ways to save lives on our roads,” Chester says.
“More than 900 people die as a result of road crashes in the Western Pacific Region every day.
“The focus of 2017’s UN Global Road Safety Week is on speed, and this is an issue that certainly impacts on road safety in Australia.”
Chester says he’s passionate about road safety. “I do not accept that death and serious injury are a necessary part of road travel.”
Speed contributes to around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in high-income countries, and up to half in low and middle-income countries.
Around 1300 Australians were killed in road crashes in 2016, and the Government has been working closely with industry, state and territory governments to provide a national focus on road safety.
Regional roads, maritime, and transport parliamentary secretary Kevin Anderson says the NSW government is proud to be a part of the fourth United Nations Road Safety Week.
“What better way to focus the nation’s and the world’s attention on road safety than lighting up Australia’s most famous bridge.”
He says a lot of work still has to be done and that the week will include discussions on solutions to regional road deaths.
“In 2016, in NSW 384 people were killed and more than 12,000 people were seriously injured.
“These are not just numbers, they are real people who leave families and friends behind who will never be the same,” Anderson says.
Visit www.unroadsafetyweek.org/en/home for more.
