27/10/2020

High impact urban intervention

As part of the 20th anniversary of the Gonzalo Rodriguez Foundation, a high-impact urban intervention was held to raise awareness and publicly reaffirm the concern and request the commitment of all to work to improve road safety in Uruguay, which in 2019 claimed the lives of 422 people.

The activity was presented as a call of attention to highlight the problem and commit both authorities and the general population to meet the goals set by the United Nations for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, which aims to reduce deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents by at least 50% from 2021 to 2030. Calling on all levels of government to take action by 2030 on all road safety-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in line with the country's pledge made at the UN High Level Ministerial Meeting in Stockholm in February 2019, in which representatives of the foundation participated.

The Foundation, as a member of the Consultative Committee for Road Safety, promotes the fulfillment of the objectives proposed in the new Decade of Action for Road Safety and Agenda 2030.

In the presence of the Vice President of the Republic, Beatríz Argimón; Minister of the Interior, Jorge Larrañaga; Minister of Labor and Social Security, Pablo Mieres; the Undersecretary and the Deputy Director of Health of the Ministry of Public Health, José Luis Satdjian and María Lujan Giudici; the mayors of Montevideo, Canelones, Tacuarembó and Treinta y Tres, Crhistian Di Candia, Tabaré Costa, José Omar Méndez, Elías Fuentes; as well as the elected mayors of Montevideo and Canelones, Carolina Cosse and Yamandú Orsi; Director of UNASEV, Carlos Manzor; National Director of the Highway Police, Crio. Mayor Mauricio Tort; president of the State Insurance Bank, José Amorin Batlle; as well as legislators, mayors, and representatives of international and multilateral organizations, and social organizations; the organization requested the commitment and responsibility of the political system to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries due to traffic accidents. It also called for the implementation of road safety strategies and plans involving all relevant stakeholders, including all sectors and levels of government, promoting a long-term state policy that sets goals and ensures compliance.

By promoting a safe systems approach, the organization encouraged government authorities to include road safety as an essential element in infrastructure, street design, transport systems and governance, bearing in mind the needs of vulnerable urban and rural road users.

In addition, it called for legislation and enforcement of key risk factors such as seat belt use, child restraints and helmets, drink driving and speeding. Implementing appropriate, effective, evidence-based or scientific laws on other risk factors related to impaired driving skills or distractions.

"It is of utmost importance the creation and implementation of long-term policies, which aim to promote safe mobility, and reduce this problem that last year took the lives of 422 people. Today with new national and departmental authorities, we need to work on strategic plans in the short, medium and long term, to set objectives and indicators that allow us to measure progress with a focus on zero victims of traffic accidents, that road safety is a state policy, "said Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, president of the Foundation Gonzalo Rodriguez.

"I want to thank the Gonzalo Rodriguez Foundation, because I have witnessed their systematic commitment, contributing permanently," said Vice President of the Republic, Beatriz Argimón, while "this call today, calls us to reflect on how we as a country face this silent pandemic that are the traffic accidents. Our presence here has to be to renew the commitment to this cause, and to firmly comply with what our country has assumed for the coming years".

"Last year's numbers dropped, and surely this year's as well, because of the logical cause of the pandemic; but all indications are that, if we do not begin to implement other measures that aim at the long term, we are going to fall back. Today, with measures such as increasing the control of safety elements or decreasing speed in certain urban areas, which do not require large investments by governments, we can experience a decline that will allow our country to be aligned with one of the objectives of the ODS, and meet the goals set by the United Nations," said Rodriguez.