From the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, the following were the major themes of discussion: Collisions are the leading cause of fatalities among young people aged 0 to 25 at the present time. Over 1.2 million individuals are killed annually on the world’s roads, and 1,049 young lives around the world are lost daily due to traffic collisions. Traffic injuries and fatalities can incur costs equivalent to 1.5 to 2 percent of a nation’s gross national product. Over 500 individuals from over 100 countries gathered in Geneva between April 23rd and 24th 2007 to participate in working groups, in an effort to acknowledge the tragedy that is occurring daily on the world’s roads and to encourage youth to begin initiatives to improve road safety in their respective countries. Through working groups, delegates gained an appreciation of the complexity of the issues facing road safety and the diversity of these issues when considering low- and high-income countries. The delegates at the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety adopted the Youth Declaration for Road Safety, which is a document expressing the issues that challenge road users and urges key individuals, organizations and agencies to promote road safety by being better role models, funding road safety programs or other similar means. An important goal of the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety was to improve awareness for road safety, and this was achieved in part during the conference, as many high ranking United Nations officials and other prominent figures in the international arena addressed the assembly to encourage the efforts of the delegates and to congratulate them on their accomplishments to date. Another goal of the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety was for the delegates to promote and advocate for road safety in their home countries. The eight-member Canadian delegation will reconvene in Montreal for the Canadian Road Safety Youth Conference during June 6th to 8th, so that the experiences gained from Geneva can be communicated to 45 other Canadian youth in an effort to initiate new youth-oriented road safety programs in Canada. (Author/publisher)
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