Pictured Above (L-R): Rob McInerney, CEO iRAP; Aimee Gauthier, Chief Knowledge Officer ITDP; Atsani Ariobowo, Director of Child and Youth Health FIA Foundation; Tom Bishop, Program Director AMEND; Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Director National Center for Safe Routes to School; Sam Balto, Educator Walking School Bus & Bike Bus Specialist.

Road traffic crashes remain the biggest killer of those aged 5-29 around the world.  Hosted by the Child Health Initiative, FIA Foundation and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on March 21 the Mobilizing for Impact event shared the partnerships that are saving young people’s lives now and how they can be scaled up with new partnerships across the US and across the world.

iRAP’s CEO, Rob McInerney, shared the life-saving success of the Star Rating for Schools programme (with support from FIA Foundation, FedEX, 3M, Prudence Foundation and all the SR4S lead partners), the Youth Engagement App (with support from Fondation Botnar and Google.org) and the CycleRAP partnerships (with ANWB, Mapfre, UCI and PTV Group) that are helping to provide safe, sustainable and climate friendly journeys to school around the world.  “The unique ability for charities, corporates and government partners to work together to rapidly scale life-saving interventions is a great way to ensure we mobilize for impact and save kid’s lives”, Rob said.  “Through the Child Health Initiative we welcome new partners and new ideas to make a difference so feel free to get in touch to explore an alliance that works for your organisation.” (irap.org/contact/)

With the UN Global Targets setting the goal for 3-star or better journeys for all road users, the iRAP global standard and supporting tools are in use in over 125 countries worldwide and provide a simple and evidence-based way to inform and measure success that can be celebrated by all.  Within the USA the 501(c)(3) registered Roadway Safety Foundation leads the usRAP program and a whole range of new partnerships can also be mobilized to make the most the US Government’s Safe Streets for All support package with a range of ways partners can make the most of the free iRAP tools.

Although global deaths on roads fell by 5% during the first Decade of Action and most lives were saved in high-income countries, the US experienced the opposite trend, with traffic fatalities reaching record highs. The event also focussed on sharing global and domestic experiences implementing the safe systems approach to address the epidemic on wheels. Road safety leaders from the World Health Organization, National Safety Council, FIA, Child Health Initiative partners, Waymo, and Autoliv also shared their insights on how we can save lives on roads, together.

Other speakers in the session moderated by Atsani Ariobowo, Director, Child & Youth Health, FIA Foundation included:

• Tom Bishop, Program Director, Amend
• Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Director, National Center for Safe Routes to School
• Aimee Gauthier, Chief Knowledge Officer, ITDP
• Sam Balto, Educator, Walking School Bus & Bike Bus Specialist

A second session on ‘Driving change: Organizational Leadership in Global Road Safety’, moderated by Nhan Tran, Head, Safety and Mobility, Department of the Social Determinants of Health, World Health Organization, included the following speakers:

• Luca Pascotto, Head of Road Safety and Global Advocacy, FIA
• Dan Chen, Retired 3M
• Analia Jarvis, Manager Government Affairs, Regulatory & Ratings, Autoliv
• Lorraine Martin, CEO, National Safety Council
• Trent Victor, Director of Safety Research and Best Practices, Waymo

Placing children at the heart of road safety is the only way to reach our global goal to halve roads deaths by 2030.

Watch summary video from the FIA Foundation below.