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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Road safety is no accident

Belgrade, 7 April 2004

Serbia, as a member country of the World Health Organisation, is celebrating the World Health Day, whose this year's slogan is Road Safety is no Accident. This slogan was chosen due to alarming figures on the toll of road traffic deaths and injuries worldwide. Road crashes kill 1.2 million people every year and injure or disable as many as 50 million more.

Statistical data on road accidents in Serbia are also alarming - the number of crashes increased from 27,000 in 1992 to 60,000 in 2002. In the same period, the number of injured rose from 16,000 to 20,000, while an average of 1,500 deaths are registered each year. Of that number, 75 percent are up to 30 years old.

If such a trend of increase of road crashes continued at this pace, the toll of deaths and injuries would increase by 60 percent by 2020, and road crashes would become one of the leading factors of premature death and loss of working capability.

On the occasion of the World Health Day, a meeting was held today at the Belgrade City Hall, gathering representatives of the Serbian ministries of interior, health, and capital investment, as well as of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Belgrade City Assembly.

Serbian Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic said that it is high time that Serbia started to deal with this issue, because the number of road crashes doubled in the last ten years. He said that the road safety is a shared responsibility, calling for expertise of health workers, law enforcement officials, the local self-government, as well as the government which must acknowledge that this is a multisectoral problem which has to be resolved with joint efforts.

Head of the Traffic Police Directorate of the Serbian Ministry of Interior Colonel Stojadin Jovanovic said that the Directorate will focus on the prevention of road traffic accidents by conducting preventive campaigns.

Assistant Minister of Capital Investment Branimir Ujdur said that roads in Serbia are in very bad shape, which is one of the causes of road accidents. For that reason, the Ministry of Capital Investment will work to improve Serbia's road infrastructure.

Melita Vujanovic from the WHO office in Belgrade said that the for the first time in its history, the United Nations General Assembly will dedicate its April 14 session to road safety.

Today's meeting was organised by the Serbian Ministry of Health, WHO office in Belgrade, the Belgrade City Assembly and the Serbian Institute of Public Health "Dr Milan Jovanovic - Batut".