Road Safety Conference in Ioannina, Greece

    Road traffic safety has become a major global social, economic, development and health concern. Only in Europe as much as 127.000 people die every year and 2.4 millions more are injured or disabled causing, in addition to human suffering, overwhelming costs amounting to 1.5 to 2.5 % of Europe’s GDP. Despite some progress in recent years, Eastern, South Eastern European and Caucasus countries are still suffering from high numbers of casualties on the road. The United Nations General Assembly, on 2 March 2010 unanimously adopted resolution 64/255 proclaiming the period 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety with a goal to reduce the level of road fatalities around the world by increasing activities at national, regional and global levels.

    In line with the implementation of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) co-organise under the Greek Chairmanship-in-office of BSEC and the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, the ‘Conference on Improving Road Safety in the BSEC Region’ in Ioannina, Greece on 18-19 November 2010. The Conference is hosted and sponsored by the Chamber of Ioaninna and the Hellenic Chambers Transport Association.

    The Conference is expected to contribute towards the implementation of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety in the BSEC region and the tangible results produced by the recently finalized UNECE project on “Improving global road safety: setting regional and national road traffic casualty reduction targets”. Among the main objectives of the Conference is to provide a platform for experts from BSEC region to discuss measures for improving road safety and sharing best practices. Moreover, the participation of high-level international and European representatives of major stakeholders, will contribute in further raising awareness on road traffic safety issues in the region.