2017: Save Lives - #SlowDown

We all want to arrive safely at our destination. By slowing down we make our roads safer for our children, families and friends. Research shows that a 5% cut in average speed can result in a 30% reduction in the number of fatal road traffic crashes. When the world commits to #SlowDown and implements evidence based solutions, road traffic crashes will fall and we will save lives.

The Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week focused on speed management. It promoted the tagline #SlowDown from the perspective of safe road users, safe vehicles and safe roads. Thousands of people pledged to slow down all around the world and thousands more organized #SlowDown Day events. These events set political momentum for slower roads all around the world with a view to permanently slow down roads around schools and neighbourhoods. These events reach hundreds of thousands of people and set about a global movement to #SlowDown roads all around the world.

"We are here to talk about speed; speed is at the core of the road traffic injury problem. 1 in 3 road traffic deaths occur because someone has been driving too fast". - Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

Facts

Why #SlowDown?

Every day we have good reasons to go somewhere important, whether we leave our homes for work, school or play. However, getting safely to where we are going is as important as getting there at all.

By slowing down, observing speed limits appropriate for the roads and not speeding, we make the roads safer for all. For children walking to school, for the elderly crossing the road, for workers driving to places of work and all road users. Speeding is a major risk factor. The more your speed, the higher the risk of a crash as well as the severity of crash consequences. Speeding also affects other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Slowing down is safe.

Avoiding collisions

You have more chance of avoiding a collision when you #SlowDown. The lower your speed, the less distance is covered while you make decisions and take action to avoid a potential collision (reaction distance). Also, the slower you are going, the less time it takes for the vehicle to stop when you hit the brakes (braking distance).

Lower speeds decrease your risk of a crash for a number of reasons:

It is more likely that a driver or rider will keep control of the vehicle.
It is more likely that a driver or rider will anticipate oncoming hazards in good time.
The distance travelled in a given time - and so the distance travelled as a driver or rider reacts to an unsafe situation on the road ahead - is shorter for travel at a lower speed.
The stopping distance for a vehicle, after a driver or rider reacts and brakes, will be shorter at a lower travel speed.

Lower speed, less damage

The lower the speed, the less kinetic or movement energy the vehicle and you (the driver or passengers) are carrying. Therefore less energy is released when colliding into another vehicle or stationary object, such as a tree or wall. Part of the energy released will be absorbed by the objects involved in the crash and part will be absorbed by the human body, causing injuries. Our human body is vulnerable and there is only so much energy it can handle without being seriously damaged. The less energy, the less damage.

The solutions

Evidence shows that the key solutions for managing speed are establishing and enforcing speed limit laws, building or modifying roads to include features to limit speed, installing technologies in vehicles, and raising awareness about the dangers of speeding as well as the actual speed limit on each road. To manage and reduce speeds we need safe vehicles, safe roads and safe people!

Safe people

Speed management campaigns serve many functions. They not only help people learn about the dangers of speeding, but also about the penalties they may face if they break limit laws.

Signs, road markings and global positioning systems in vehicles help people know the appropriate speed limits set for any given road. Such campaigns offer practical reasons to #SlowDown.

A global movement

Hundreds of thousands campaigners around the world participated in the Save Lives - #SlowDown campaign. From the simple task of downloading a signboard and taking a picture with it for social media awareness via the #SlowDown hashtag, to organizing a fully fledged #SlowDown Day.

Nearly 1000 events were organized across the world with campaigners setting in motion political and social momentum to reduce speeds on the road, especially around schools and areas where pedestrians frequent.