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The IRF gives safety award to the Spanish Road Association and the Inter-American Development Bank

A joint international road safety award has been presented to the Spanish Road Association and the Inter-American Development Bank. The IRF International Award on Road Safety was given for the Road Safety Strategy in Latin America and Caribbean (Diagnosis, Toolkit and Pilot Tests) project, which developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) with the technical support of the Spanish Road Association (SRA). This forms part of the IRF Global Road Achievement Award (GRAA) 2012 and is one of the most im
January 21, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
A joint international road safety award has been presented to the 2392 Spanish Road Association and the 2791 Inter-American Development Bank. The 2462 IRF International Award on Road Safety was given for the Road Safety Strategy in Latin America and Caribbean (Diagnosis, Toolkit and Pilot Tests) project, which developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) with the technical support of the Spanish Road Association (SRA). This forms part of the IRF Global Road Achievement Award (GRAA) 2012 and is one of the most important awards in the road field.

The project constitutes a new strategic programme on road safety for Latin America and Caribbean. The project enables to develop a detailed diagnosis on mobility conditions in these countries, and subsequently to establish a program with recommendations in order to decrease the accident rate in the area. According to data from the Pan-American Healthy Organisation, around 130,000 persons are killed every year in Latin America and the Caribbean while more than 1.2 million results injured and hundreds of thousands are disabled as a result of traffic accidents. In addition to social damage, these accidents represent a serious economic problem, meaning a 4.5% loss of the GDP in some countries.

With the aim of improving these figures, the project, developed by IDB and SRA, covers 26 countries in the region, analysing all the factors involved in road accidents: human factor, vehicle, user and infrastructure, urban and rural contexts, also considering the institutional and legal framework. The conclusions of the data collection and analysis have allowed the preparation of an action program and the development of the on-line guide for road safety, with the support of Polytechnic University of Valencia.

This is an interactive publication available on line in IDB website (www.iadb.org/es). The guide includes a program to identify the problems and provide solutions in different fields of road safety. It is a useful toolkit for the development of strategies with the objective of improving minimum safety standards required in roads, evaluating the features and defining the actions to increase safety levels. The guide also includes measures to improve road safety considering the human factor and vehicles, in addition to the institutional and legal framework. The Road Safety Strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean has been trialled in different countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

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