There are estimated to be approximately 1.3 million deaths and 20 to 50 million serious injures per year around the globe resulting from traffic collisions. By 2030, if nothing changes, road deaths are predicted to be the 5th leading cause of death worldwide, up from 9th in 2004. While road deaths have been decreasing in developed countries, they are increasing in middle and lower income countries at a rapid rate, and in many cases the total losses exceed what the country receives in foreign aid, not to mention the dire effects on a family when the head of a household is lost or seriously injured. Since 2003, there have been a number of road safety related resolutions accepted by the United Nations and in 2009, the Russian Federation held the first ministerial conference on road safety. The Russian delegation proposed a decade of action, which was co-sponsored by over 100 countries. In March of the following year, the UN declared 2011 to 2020 to be the Decade of Action for Road Safety.

The Decade of Action has the goal of stabilizing, and then reducing, the number of deaths and serious injuries due to road crashes around the world. It is hoped that the number of fatalities can be reduced to below a million by 2020, rather than the projected 1.9 million if the situation remains unchanged.

The Decade of Action is based on the development of a culture of safety involving a multidisciplinary range of partners including victims, media, citizens, private sector, international and national organizations and governments. The international launch of the Decade of Action was May 11, 2011, and all member states were invited to hold events to mark the event.

Transport Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada produced and published the Road Safety in Canada Report, which is available on the Transport Canada web site at http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety2011.

The CGRSC and the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals decided to mark the Decade of Action launch with a workshop at the Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference in Halifax.

The goal of the day was to highlight the Decade of Action, road safety in Canada and in particular, two selected jurisdictions, Nova Scotia and Alberta.

This presentation covered the history of the Decade of Action and the importance to middle and lower income countries of benefiting from the safety knowledge in the higher income countries. The five pillars of the Decade of Action were discussed:
   1. Road Safety Plan - establish a lead agency, set targets and collect the required data to monitor progress;
   2. Safer Roads & Mobility - safety conscious design and operations, roadway audits and infrastructure for different vehicle types;
   3. Safer Vehicles - harmonizing standards, new car assessment and encouraging safety and crash avoidance technologies;
   4. Safer Road Users - raise awareness, promote model programs, enforcement and graduated licensing for young drivers; and
   5. Post Crash Response - pre-hospital treatment, national emergency numbers, reha- bilitation support, insurance and crash investigation.

An outline of the planning for the 2011 Year of Road Safety in Canada was presented. The Year of Road Safety is to highlight the new Road Safety Strategy (RSS) 2015 and the Decade of Action for Road Safety by having displays at conferences, providing a re-developed I-Drive video to schools for the National Day of Remembrance, and producing a number of other publications.

Information on the latest data related to the previous Road Safety Vision 2010 was presented. 2010 data are not yet available but, up to 2009, the data are encouraging. Deaths in 2009 dropped to 2,209 with 12,032 serious injuries. To fully achieve the 30% reduction in fatalities and serious in- juries set under Road Safety Vision 2010, deaths need to be below 1,953 and serious injuries need to be below 10,985.

Road Safety Strategy 2015 has been approved by the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety. RSS 2015 retains the vision of Canada having the safest roads in the world, has a five year time frame, is flexible and holistic, and has no hard numerical targets but rather seeks to continue a downward trend in fatalities and serious injuries. A series of best practices has been prepared to assist individual jurisdictions to address their specific safety concerns.

Nova Scotia's Road Safety Program
Kent Speiran, Department of Transportation and Infrastructure

Alberta's Road Safety Program
Liz Owens, Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation