Skip to main content

IRF appoints new global road safety champion

The International Road Federation has a new spearhead for its global road safety programme. Michael Dreznes will serve as the Federation's (IRF) executive vice president with worldwide leadership on training, policy and capacity-building activities.
March 2, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 713 International Road Federation has a new spearhead for its global road safety programme. Michael Dreznes will serve as the Federation’s (IRF) executive vice president with worldwide leadership on training, policy and capacity-building activities.

"Mike has spent the last twenty-six years working to make roads safer around the world," said Patrick Sankey, president and chief executive of IRF in Washington DC, the United States, where Dreznes will be based. "He is recognised as one of the world's leading experts on roadside safety, pioneering the concept of Forgiving Highways, and we are thrilled to have him lead the road safety initiatives of IRF."

Sankey said one of Dreznes’s key areas of responsibility will be to work with road authorities around the world to use IRF's Safer Roads by Design executive road safety training.

Speaking about his new role Dreznes said: "IRF is where I can truly make a difference. Too many countries around the world are using obsolete roadside safety measures and technologies that should have been replaced twenty years ago.

"I will collaborate with road authorities, concessionaires, design consulting engineers, academia and other safety stakeholders to encourage the replacement of outdated technology and to introduce state-of-the-art practices in countries around the world, thereby assisting governments with their commitment to the 3262 United Nations Decade of Action to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2020," Dreznes said.

The co-chairman of the 2774 Transportation Research Board Roadside Safety Design Subcommittee on International Research Activities, Dreznes is also a member of the TRB AFB20 Committee on Roadside Safety Design.

Founded in 1948, the IRF is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization with members from both the public and private sectors in 90 countries worldwide.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Rural road promise economic growth for developing nations around the world
    October 9, 2012
    This circular was prepared by Asif Faiz, Emeritus Member of the TRB Committee on Low- Volume Roads. Faiz received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Peshawar University in Pakistan in 1968. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in transportation engineering from Purdue University in 1971 and 1975, respectively. He then joined the World Bank as an economist in the West Africa region. His international development experience of 37 years covers more than 40 developing countries in Sub-S
  • Engineering agreement for international collaboration
    July 18, 2019
    A new agreement has been reached that will foster more cooperation and collaboration with regard to engineering at an international level. The International engineering federation FIDIC (the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA). This move is intended to improve collaboration between international and Chinese businesses, facilitate skills and knowledge transfer and increase the unders
  • IRF to hold four regional congresses in 2014
    March 28, 2014
    In 2013, IRF members launched three new regional affairs Committees covering Latin America & the Caribbean, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, each tasked with connecting with IRF members active in these regions and developing bespoke capacity building programs that leverage IRF know-how. IRF is also strengthening its program of operations in the Asia Pacific region following renewed interested expressed by senior government officials during the recent IRF World Meeting.
  • IRF supports the launch of the SuM4All Global Roadmap of Action
    February 6, 2020
    On October 23rd, SuM4All launched - at the World Bank In Washington - the Global Roadmap of Action Toward Sustainable Mobility, (GRA).