13/06/2018

Children´s safety first

FISEVI, which was declared of social and cultural interest by the City of Buenos Aires, ended last Wednesday, June 13, after two days of activities focused on improving child mobility in all Latin-American countries.

The event was a positive signal for child road safety in the región. In these two days, FISEVI was atended by more than 400 people, 70 international speakers and the prominent presence of the Ministry of Transportation. the Nation, Guillermo Dietrich and the director of the National Road Safety Agency of Argentina, Carlos Pérez, who hosted the forum.

In his welcome speech to FISEVI, Dietrich pointed out that "road safety is and should always be a state policy. Better infrastructure on roads and highways, and more effective controls, not only raise awareness, but they also take care of everyone's life," he added.

María Fernanda Rodríguez, President of the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez, expressed her satisfaction regarding the change in the approach to child road safety throughout her work in the subject and pointed out that "when we started working, children were not a priority nor were they included in the mobility and road safety policies of Latin America. The great call and repercussion that we have had with this FISEVI shows us that the situation has changed, and that we need to travel the road for a safe mobility of our children together; there is a lot to be done."

FISEVI had 15 sessions framed in a change of approach to road safety based on the creation of safe systems. This concept aims to eliminate deaths and serious injuries due to road accidents, based on the fact that users make mistakes, so safety conditions must be generated from the design of the road network.

The director of the ANSV said that "during 2017, 324 children aged between 0 and 14 years old died in road incidents in Argentina. In turn, a study we conducted in 2016 indicated that only 3 of every 10 children travel safely, we could not ignore this, so we are committed to hosting the 3rd International Forum on Child Road Safety," he said.

Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death between 5 and 29 years of age worldwide and Latin America is one of the continents most affected by this cause. According to the latest Report on the Global Status Report on Road Safety World Health Organization, 90% of deaths and injuries due to traffic accidents occur in the countries of medium and low income.

In this sense, the launching of the report "Streets for Life: Safe and Healthy Routes for Children in Latin America and the Caribbean" was carried out, jointly prepared by UNICEF, Save the Children, the Gonzalo Rodríguez Foundation and the FIA Foundation. The report indicates that children in low-income communities are at greatest risk of suffering from the combination of impacts that traffic generates for health.

FISEVI was made possible thanks to the support of FIA Foundation, IDB, UPS, Asociación de Fábricas de Automotores (ADEFA), FedEx, CAF (Development Bank of America), Abertis, Autopistas de Buenos Aires (AUBASA),  CITA (International Motor Vehicle Inspection Committee), DS Safety, ECOSAN , Global Ncap, IDENTIMAX, Fundación Grupo Sancor Seguros Foundation, and Impresores VCR.