United Nations Global Road Safety Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in recognition of the third annual United Nations Global Road Safety Week and to celebrate the contribution of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT) to the global effort to reduce the number of road crashes around the world.

ASIRT is extremely active in the global movement to promote and improve road safety. Tens of thousands of people are injured as a result of traffic collisions each year. More than 500 children are killed every day in road crashes and 186,300 children under 18 die from road traffic crashes annually. The rates of road traffic death are three times higher in developing countries than in developed countries.

As part of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, ASIRT has joined with the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration to announce #SaveKidsLives, a global campaign focused on delivering a Child Declaration on Road Safety to the policymakers who can make a difference. During UN Global Road Safety Week, the #SaveKidsLives Campaign seeks to highlight the plight of children on the world's roads and generate action to better ensure their safety. The campaign features hundreds of events hosted by governments, international agencies, civil society organizations, and private companies, including the delivery of the ``Child Declaration for Road Safety'' to policy-makers.

During this Global Road Safety Week, I salute ASIRT and the United Nations for the work they are doing to promote road safety domestically and around the world.

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