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concessionaires, design consulting engineers, academia and other safety stakeholders to encourage the replacement of outdated technology and to introduce state-of-the-art practices in countries around the world, thereby assisting governments with their commitment to the 3262 United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

  • European transport safety programme
    March 29, 2019
    A new programme of transport safety measures has been drawn up for Europe, with funding having been secured. Called the Safer Transport Platform, this programme is being managed jointly by the European Investment Bank and European Commission. The plans call for a series of investments in transport safety, with a special focus on roads New financing measures form part of the Safer Transport Platform, a joint EC and EIB initiative. This will address investment needs in transport safety in Europe. At the TE
  • Fiat Industrial complete new GEC leadership team
    January 8, 2013
    Fiat Industrial says it has completed its new leadership team after making the final two appointments to its Group Executive Council. The appointment of Lorenzo Sistino as Iveco brand president, and Oddone Incisa, as president, financial services, follows a senior management shake-up which began in November 2012 aimed at enhancing the ‘operational integration’ of Fiat Industrial and CNH Global. Having worked for Fiat companies in various roles since 1987, Sistino was most recently head of commercial vehicle
  • World’s largest bridge deck for KAIA expansion
    December 16, 2013
    A bespoke formwork solution from RMD Kwikform is playing a key role in creating the largest ever airport cast bridge deck as part of the multi-billion dollar expansion of King Abdulaziz International Airport near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The firm is also a leading player in the creation of arterial tunnels under the airport’s elevated roads, another key part of the project’s first phase works due for completion in 2014. Guy Woodford reports
  • Europe’s road safety targets at risk
    June 15, 2015
    The EU’s targets for road safety are at risk due to increased fatalities in France, Germany and UK. This new analysis has been published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). According to the ETSC data, 2014 showed the lowest annual reduction in EU road deaths since 2001. In all 25,845 people were killed in road crashes in the 28 nations of the EU during 2014. This represented a decrease of just 0.6% compared to 2013. EU member states now need to cut deaths by almost 8% each year until 2020 to me