Call for urgent action as ‘fatal disconnect’ in global health policies fails child victims of road traffic
Story from the FIA Foundation
The international community is failing to take action on a global health crisis caused by road traffic, which kills 350,000 children and adolescents each year and causes serious harm and injury to millions more, says a new report and campaign launched today at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
The report, ‘Unfinished Journey: The Global Health Response to Children & Road Traffic’, released by the Child Health Initiative, which is coordinated by the FIA Foundation, identifies road traffic as one of the most neglected issues affecting the health and wellbeing of young people. The scale of the epidemic is being recognised and documented by UN agencies, but little or no action follows. This ‘fatal disconnect’ in policy is failing the world’s children.
The report, launched this week to coincide with the World Health Assembly in Geneva, and the inter-governmental International Transport Forum being held in Leipzig, spearheads a new campaign calling for a first ever summit of world leaders on child and adolescent health to urgently re-focus global policy to address this road traffic-related health crisis. NGOs around the world are launching calls for action, urging world leaders to ‘walk the talk’ on providing safe environments for children and adolescents, while young people are joining the campaign to emphasise that #ThisisMyStreet.
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