UN Global Road Safety Week kicks off in Georgia

On 23 April the UN Global Road Safety Week conference was held at Sheraton Metechi Palace Hotel dedicated to road safety issues, in particular pedestrian safety.

Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads and  DPI /UN Office in Georgia marked the opening of the Road Safety Week in Georgia with a conference.

Among the speakers of the conference were representatives of the UNO Georgia, Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads, Ambassadors of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Estonia to Georgia, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Labor, Healthcare and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia.

Launch of the one-year social-educational project for road safety – “Yield to the Pedestrian” took place at the conference. In the framework of the project partner organizations (KIA Motors Georgia, MFO “Crystal”, “GIS” Ltd., Georgian Automobile Federation, Radio Holding “Fortuna”, television company “MusicBox” , magazine “AutoBild Georgia”, informational-analytical portal “Kvira”, newspaper “The FINANCIAL”, TV show “Auto Race” and the Estonian organization “TrafficProf”, Charity Humanitarian Center “Abkhazeti”(CHCA)) signed the cooperation memorandum.

The project aims to raise awareness of the drivers and the pedestrians on the road safety issues and decrease the number of fatalities and injuries caused by traffic accidents.

Moreover, in the framework of the project similar youth educational street actions were organized near schools in Kutaisi and Gori, besides Tbilisi.

The main message of the UN Road Safety Week is – “Road Safety is no Accident”, which stresses the importance of active involvement and tight partnership between the state, civil society and private sectors in the decrease of the number of traffic-related accidents.