More Killed On World’s Roads Than War Or Disease
Friday, April 27th, 2007Mirror.co.uk
BLAIR: GREATEST THREAT IS BAD DRIVING
By Bob Roberts, Deputy Political Editor 24/04/2007
BAD driving kills 1.2million people a year and is a bigger danger to the world than war or disease, Tony Blair said yesterday.
A thousand young people around the globe die every day in crashes and only Aids kills more young men. In the UK, 70 children are killed or seriously injured every week.
Oxfam says around a million have died in conflicts since 2001. The Prime Minister teamed up with ex-Formula 1 racing champion Michael Schumacher to call for action on the shocking death toll.
Mr Blair, speaking at the start of the UN global road safety week, said: “Every minute of every day a child is killed or seriously injured on the world’s roads.
“Road crashes are the second leading cause of death for young men after HIV/Aids and in some African countries more than 70 per cent of those killed on the roads are young breadwinners. It is becoming clear that road injury has a serious impact on the wider development goals we’re all trying to achieve.”
Schumacher said: “Road crashes kill on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis.”
Both men called for a UN conference to work out a strategy for cutting road deaths, which could involve British driving instructors being sent to the Third World to improve training.
Bob.Roberts@Mirror.Co.Uk
I’ll let you decide.
Zoe