Every 6 seconds someone is killed or seriously injured on the world's roads.

Sadly 10 million children are injured and 260,000 children are killed every year in road crashes. Road traffic injuries impact families of every nation. This global epidemic is comparable to Malaria or Tuberculosis. Whether while walking, riding on a bicycle or motor bike or riding in a vehicle, children are at a particularly high risk of injury and death from road traffic injuries.

A Decade of Action on Road Safety

On Nov. 20, 2009, 150 countries adopted the "Moscow Declaration" at the close of the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. This historic document invites the UN General Assembly to declare a Decade of Action for Road Safety from 2011 to 2020.

The declaration encourages:

 - implementation of the world report on road traffic injury prevention;

- calls for efforts to address the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and users of public transport;

- promotes harmonization of road safety and vehicle safety regulations and good practices;

- recommends strengthening road safety legislation and enforcement;

- supports enhancing emergency trauma care systems; and

 - requests additional funding from the international development community, especially for low-income and middle-income countries.

Take Action

To continue the momentum created in Moscow, we need your help. Take our pledge, write to your members of congress, and urge your family and friends to take action. Car crashes impact us every day; let's help those without a voice and in memory of those who no longer have one.

Tell five people I know about the problem of road safety

Learn more about global unintentional injury prevention on our Web site.