Read the full article below.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.2″]<\/p>\n ACRS FELLOW ROB MCINERNEY\u00a0AUTHORS COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE PIECE\u00a0<\/strong>‘PROTECTING LIVES AND PROTECTING LIVELIHOODS: IMAGINE A RESPONSE TO ROAD SAFETY LIKE COVID-19’<\/strong><\/p>\n Protecting Lives and Protecting Livelihoods:\u00a0 Imagine a response to road safety like COVID-19<\/strong> Thankfully, our response to the COVID-19 crisis in Australia and NZ has taken on the urgency and scale of response needed, and despite some setbacks recently we should be proud of our decision makers and their courage.\u00a0 What would road trauma levels be in this country if we responded with the same bravery, courage, intellect, investment and coordination as has been applied to COVID-19?\u00a0 More of that later!<\/p>\n As the CEO of iRAP, I was on the Steering Committee for the Global Ministerial Conference in Sweden at the end of February.\u00a0 Ministers and senior officials from across the planet coming together to reflect on the Decade of Action for Road Safety where our progress has fallen short of the fatality reduction targets.\u00a0 New commitments were made for the Decade ahead, with a goal to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030.\u00a0 Recognising that road safety is in someone\u2019s value chain was a key recommendation of the Academic Expert Group.\u00a0 The\u00a0Stockholm Declaration<\/a>\u00a0charting the course for the Decade ahead and the commitment to achieving the\u00a0Global Road Safety Performance Targets<\/a>\u00a0was agreed and the UNRSC\u00a0Ten Step Plan for Safer Infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0was launched.<\/p>\n Our\u00a0iRAP Innovation Workshop<\/a>\u00a0shared success stories from around the world and plans for the future.\u00a0 New iRAP partnerships with the\u00a0FIA Foundation<\/a>,\u00a0European Investment Bank<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Inter-American Development Bank<\/a>\u00a0were launched building on our positive work with the World Bank, ADB and low, middle and high-income country governments across more than 100 countries.\u00a0 Our exciting\u00a0Star Rating for Schools<\/a>\u00a0global partnership with FedEx, FIA Foundation and now 3M was launched.\u00a0 Thanks to the TAC team in Victoria we were able to launch our\u00a0Vaccines for Roads<\/a>\u00a0resource shining a spotlight on the true human impact of road trauma.\u00a0 We had the wind in the road safety sails and full of positive energy.<\/p>\n Even with WHO co-hosting the event with the Government of Sweden it went ahead as normal with only a few countries not able to send delegates due to the virus.\u00a0 Interestingly some of our Ai-RAP partners like Google, and other big companies did stop their staff travelling \u2013 they must have a good search engine!<\/p>\n Barely home to Australia and I was in crisis mode and not full steam ahead for global road safety as planned.\u00a0 iRAP staff travel a lot to help our partners around the world.\u00a0 We have staff in China, Philippines, India, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Brussels, UK, Uganda, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.\u00a0 We have partners we care about in over 100 countries.\u00a0 One of our team goals is to be 5-Star Safe, Healthy and Happy and I am always conscious of our risk driving the roads of the world and the other security risks.\u00a0 Our security advisor was able to have the global risks and facts in our hand early and we were able to get our staff safely back to their home countries before any of the restrictions kicked in.\u00a0 We were set up working from home before it became mandatory.\u00a0 We were able to protect our staff.<\/p>\n Together with our executive team our focus for the response was Protect, Survive and Thrive.\u00a0 One of our previous Board Members (John Mumford) was an ex BP exec and he taught us a lot about risk management that helps us every day.\u00a0 Have the worst covered, create a clear line of communication and decisions and focus 100% of your energy on the priorities in order.\u00a0 This also helps to not feel swamped when facing a crisis.<\/p>\n Protect:<\/strong>\u00a0 Looking after our great team was the number one priority as part of the immediate response.\u00a0 We also recognised the impact of COVID-19 would be very different for every staff member in every country and we\u2019d need to be kind and responsive to those needs.\u00a0 As a small sample of the impacts some of our team have had close friends and relatives die from COVID-19 around the world and one team member became the proud father of twins in Manila the day before a hard lockdown.\u00a0 More than a third of our global team have needed flexibility to juggle their personal and family impacts that we have been pleased to support.<\/p>\n Survive:<\/strong>\u00a0 As a small passionate charity with global reach we are always trying to do absolutely everything we can to save lives.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t want one health crisis to take over at the expense of another.\u00a0 We put together a team to help our partners rapidly ramp up remote delivery options for all the projects around the world.\u00a0 This has included remote training for teams in Kazakhstan in Russian and with the Inter-American Development Bank we are about to deliver a fully remote assessment of the Pacific Corridor through 7 Central American countries from Mexico to Panama.\u00a0 This is a reassessment of the corridor that was assessed in 2010 and has seen millions of dollars worth of road upgrades rolled out over the last ten years based on that initial survey.\u00a0 We can\u2019t wait to see the results!<\/p>\n Thrive:<\/strong>\u00a0 COVID-19 has united every country on earth.\u00a0 We have stopped travelling and started zooming.\u00a0 We are sharing our home lives, our pets and our kids with our colleagues.\u00a0 We are all human and we are sharing that.\u00a0 We also have the chance to shape opportunities for the future.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been able to focus on what matters \u2013 from our families to our friends and for our passions and pursuits.\u00a0 For me and the iRAP family, that is road safety!\u00a0 We have been helping UNICEF set up guidelines to get kids to school safely after lockdown as part of the Star Rating for Schools work.\u00a0 We have encouraged the Australian Government and others to mobilise\u00a0stimulus for safer roads<\/a>\u00a0that saves lives, saves the health system and creates jobs.\u00a0 We have done \u201cpop-up star ratings\u201d for the \u201cpop-up\u201d bike lanes and footpaths and will help to make them permanent.\u00a0 We have\u00a0published papers<\/a>\u00a0to encourage others to capture the opportunities that a crisis like COVID-19 creates.<\/p>\n And so back to the question of what would road trauma levels be in this country if we responded with the same bravery, courage, intellect, investment and coordination as has been applied to COVID-19?\u00a0 What if the realisation that we will kill and injure 400,000 Australians over the next ten years in road crashes finally jolted us to so NO WAY!\u00a0 What if we brought together the incredible wealth of experts in this country in a crisis response centre rather than a summit and let them loose?\u00a0 What if we used 100% of our energy to find the solutions to act immediately, rather than 90% of our energy finding excuses to say no and manage the status quo?<\/p>\n The COVID-19 challenge has often been discussed as a trade-off between protecting lives and protecting livelihoods.\u00a0 There is no trade-off with investment to reduce road trauma.\u00a0 It will save lives, save money and create jobs.\u00a0 It will protect lives and protect livelihoods.<\/p>\n At the launch of the UN Road Safety Week at the Sydney Opera House in 2017, with all our ACRS colleagues and Patron former Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove I said \u201cWhat would happen if we truly treated road crashes as a disaster \u2013 which they are \u2013 and applied a \u201cdisaster response\u201d mentality to our action over the next 3 years?\u00a0 What life-saving impact could we have?\u201d.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t\u2026.but imagine if we had mobilised the same scale of response as we have to COVID-19.<\/p>\n Oh well \u2013 hopefully the Saints are Coming for road safety soon!\u00a0?<\/p>\n Mr Rob McInerney FACRS<\/strong> Rob is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Road Safety – you can also read the full article and follow him on LinkedIn\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n This piece was originally published in the ACRS newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
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Mr Rob McInerney FACRS<\/strong>
Fellow – ACRS<\/em>
CEO – International Road Assessment Program (iRAP)<\/u><\/p>\n
Can you remember the U2 and Green Day video clip for the \u201cThe Saints are Coming<\/a>\u201d after the Hurricane Katrina disaster.\u00a0 Footage of some sadly fake news of how U.S. Iraq troops were redeployed to New Orleans to help with the rescue missions and provision of supplies.<\/p>\n\n
Fellow – ACRS<\/em>
CEO – International Road Assessment Program (iRAP)<\/u><\/p>\n