Every year there are 1.35 million road traffic fatalities globally. This not only causes human suffering, but also major economic losses. In a vigorous effort to prevent this, world leaders gathered in Moscow in 2009 to declare 2011–2020 a Decade of Action for Road Safety.
In 2015, a follow-up conference was held in Brasilia. The decade is coming to an end and, in April 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that designated Sweden as the host of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.
The Decade of Action has encouraged action at all levels of society, but the focus is primarily national and local. Five pillars have been established to guide the efforts of national and local governments:
- Road safety management
- Safer roads and mobility
- Safer vehicles
- Safer road users
- Post-crash response
