Williams to support road safety at Moscow

The AT&T Williams team and Kazuki Nakajima will, for the second year in succession, be taking to the streets of Moscow for a city centre Formula One event, with the city’s iconic Red Square, Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theatre providing a spectacular backdrop to a 4.3km demonstration route this weekend.

As much as entertain an enthusiastic Muscovite crowd which numbered in the thousands last year, the team will be actively promoting the first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which will be hosted in Moscow on 19-20 November 2009. The team’s race car will carry the conference’s identity prominently as part of the team’s race car livery, together with the Make Roads Safe logo.

Each year approximately 1.3 million deaths occur on the world’s roads, a toll comparable to malaria and tuberculosis in fatalities alone. Yet the burden of unsafe roads is far greater; with severe disabling injuries affecting an additional 20 to 50 million people each year. More than 85% of all fatalities and injuries occur in the developing world. Tragically, children are often the victims particularly in low and middle-income countries. Road traffic fatalities are the number one killer of children aged 10-24, and 96% of these children are dying on roads in developing nations. The trend is predicted to get worse with the rapid motorisation that accompanies development. Road traffic crashes consume 1-2% of GNP for most countries.

Although this is a global epidemic, there is no coordinated global response and many developing nations lack the capacity to prevent these preventable deaths and injuries. UN Resolution 62/64 is the first co-ordinated bid to tackle this wholly preventable epidemic, by calling for the first high-level global conference on road safety under the auspices of the UN. Russia has taken the initiative to host the first global conference at ministerial level, with a clear ambition to make a positive global impact on road safety.

Williams F1 has identified road safety as one of three areas where it can and will contribute more broadly to society. The team is working closely with the FIA Foundation and the Commission for Global Road Safety to help communicate and motivate road safety initiatives. The FIA Foundation, originally endowed by the FIA with $300 million from its Formula One television rights, has been a prime mover in calling for concerted and pannational action on road safety through its Make Roads Safe campaign. Formula One offers many examples of good practice in relation to injury prevention. Despite driving at high speed and in a competitive context, accidents and injuries in Formula One are by comparison, rare, thanks to a highly developed preventative safety environment.

General Victor Kiryanov, Head of Road Safety in the Russian Federation Ministry of the Interior and member of the Commission for Global Road Safety said, “The Ministerial Conference is planned to focus on a comprehensive discussion of global road safety and its influence on the socio-economic development of countries and their attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. In particular, it is planned to review the progress of countries’ implementation of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and to determine ways to step up international co-operation.”

Frank Williams, Williams F1’s Team Principal said, “I am delighted to be returning to Russia and personally take a great deal of interest in our mission not only to help develop interest in Formula One in Russia, but we are this year entrusted as envoys of a critical message about road safety. This is a subject that I, based on personal experience, regard as hugely important.”