By Nneka Henry, Head of the UN Road Safety Fund & the Office of the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety
Dr. Nhan Tran, Head, Safety and Mobility, World Health Organization

Mary Ann, a 7-year-old with a shy smile, steps out onto the narrow sidewalk outside her school each day, in Quezon City, clutching her mother’s hand. Cars, trucks, and motorbikes zip by in a frenzy, with nothing but a painted line separating them from her as they head home after school. 

It’s a scene that’s played out all over the world each day. Yet it hides a brutal reality, that our roads - the very paths to our jobs, schools and services - are the deadliest places on earth for our children.

Road crashes claim nearly 1.2 million lives each year, more than two every minute, and are the world’s leading killer of children and youth. So while Mary Ann skips home to safety, thousands never make it.

The World Health Organization’s latest Global Status Report on Road Safety shows that progress has been made in reducing road deaths, but the slight decline in recent years is nowhere near enough to meet the global goal of halving these tragedies by 2030.

Rapid urbanisation and a fast-rising number of vehicles pose new challenges, and as long as transport systems are built for private vehicles, the walk to school will remain fraught for millions of children.

Yet there is hope, inspiration and plenty of hard evidence that shows what must be done.

Designing transport systems for people  - with safety as the goal and the guiding light  - is crucial.

Governments must provide strategic leadership and coordination across all relevant sectors, but engineers, urban planners, academia, civil society and youth all have a role in making roads safer.

We need a fundamental shift from the traditional approach to road safety that focuses solely on individuals and individual actions, to a broader approach that also looks at safe mobility systems.

For example, making motorcyclists wear helmets saves lives, but taking a long-term approach alongside this will ensure more people choose safe and affordable public transport in the first place.

Imagine a future where Mary Ann can walk to school on broader sidewalks, where cars nearby move at non-life-threatening speeds. Cycle on tree-lined bike lanes, or take safe and efficient public transport.

When walking, cycling and public transport is safe and accessible, many more people choose it. This also means that millions of children will breathe cleaner, healthier air and live longer, healthier lives.

Safer roads power economies. Road deaths and injuries cost many countries around 3% of the GDP, so ensuring more people move safely to their jobs, schools and services drives development overall.

Bringing this vision to life is right at the heart of the Global Plan for the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, which offers a blueprint for governments to reduce road deaths.

In a couple of weeks, the world will convene for a crucial Ministerial Summit on Road Safety in Morocco. Leaders will assess progress, share knowledge, and advance actions to halve road deaths by 2030.

This goal can still be met. Ten countries have already done it. So global leaders must step up. We need a step change in political will, a sense of urgency, clear government coordination and far more action.

The UN Road Safety Fund is a crucial tool to accelerate progress. The Fund works to build capacity for road safety in 88 countries, including many of the hardest-hit nations. It has delivered nearly 24 million USD in road safety support since 2018 and aims to disperse another 30 million USD in the coming years.

Road safety is an urgent and entirely preventable global health crisis. For millions of children like Mary Ann that face dire risk on the roads each day, we must double-down on actions to end road carnage once and for all.