Road Safet Week Encourages to Build Streets for Life

Despite the sobering statistics of Georgia’s road death and serious injury rates, the message of road safety doesn't appear to be sinking in for all.

According to National Statistics Office, in 2021 449 people were killed and 7705 injured in crashes across Georgia. The number of injured increased by 17 % compared to 2020.

Illegal maneuvering and other traffic movement violations, speed, alcohol, pedestrian-related dangerous behaviour and poor condition of vehicles contributed to road fatalities every year.

To counter these preventable deaths and injuries,  the Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads and the United Nations Office in Georgia in partnership with Tegeta Holding and Volvo Car Caucasus are running an annual Road Safety Week campaign from 16 to 22 May, 2022.

This year's theme is #CommittoACT and build #streetsforlife that will help achieve the SDGs. 

To help Georgia move forward on sustainability and road safety path, the conference on road safety issues was organized on May 18. The agenda focused on the legislative and policy aspects of road safety.

Opening the conference on May 18, UN Resident Coordinator in Georgia Sabine Machl noted that challenges are indeed severe not only in Georgia, but in the whole world. “Estimates by the World Health Organization suggest that road crashes kill nearly 1.3 million people every year and leave between 20 and 50 million injured or permanently disabled worldwide,” she said. “In line with our promise under the Sustainable Development Goals to halve global traffic deaths and injuries by 2030, we need a joint commitment by central and local government, Parliament, civil society and the private sector to renew pledge for road safety”.

This strong resolve to improve road safety was echoed in welcome remarks made by Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads Chair Eka Laliashvili, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Guram Guramishvili, Chair of the Parliamentary Legal Committee Anri Okhanashvili, Head of the National Center for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze and Director of Volvo Car Caucasus Gaga Kokhreidze.

Chair of the Legal Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia Anri Okhanashvili pointed out that the Georgian parliament amended the Law on Roads to bring it into line with best practice on one or more key risk factors for road traffic injuries. He noted that the work on  strengthening and harmonizing the supportive legal framework would continue.

Head of the National Center for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze focused on road traffic crashes as a public health problem noting that road trauma continues to be a major issue. “With over a million people killed each year on the world’s roads, and tens of millions more injured, road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death across all age groups globally,” he said. He noted that bold steps forward in addressing road traffic injuries as a preventable health problem are needed.

Deputy Economy Minister, Guram Guramishvili  highlighted the importance of a twinning project on road safety that has come into effect in Georgia under the European Union (EU) assistance. He noted that the successful implementation of the project would have a positive impact on the process of overcoming the challenges in terms of road safety in Georgia.

One conference theme was in-car technologies that help feel safer on roads. "Innovative approaches, including  the 3-point safety belt invented by Volvo has saved hundreds of thousands of lives,” said Gaga Kokhreidze, Director of Volvo Car Caucasus.

Earlier, on May 16 the Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads has visited a St. George’s International School  to spread an important message when it comes to being safe on the roads.