WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the UN High-Level Meeting on Improving Global Road Safety – 20 July 2026

Your Excellency Annalena Baerbock, President of the General Assembly,

Your Excellency Ambassador Aida Kasymalieva,

Your Excellency Ambassador Peter Hulényi,

My friend Mr Jean Todt,

The President of ECOSOC Ambassador Thapa,

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Let me start with a survey.

If anyone in the room has ever been in a road traffic crash, I ask you to stand up.

[WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO STAND]

While you're standing, I have another question;

if you lost someone you love in a road traffic crash, or they were seriously injured, please stand up.

[WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO STAND]

Almost all of us. Thank you, you may be seated.

[WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO SIT]

In one way or another, road safety touches all of our lives.

I see it in this room today, and I feel it too.

Last year alone, more than 1.1 million people lost their lives on the world's roads. That's more than two deaths every single minute.

That's 1.1 million people who set out on a journey, to work, to school, to the shops, or to visit family or friends, and never reached their destination.

A parent who never made it home for dinner. A child who never made it to school. A friend who never made it to say goodbye.

Lives cut short in an instant.

Those who survive often do so with life-changing injuries, and with families who care for them, grieve with them, and carry on beside them.

The toll is even more shocking when we consider that every single one of these deaths and injuries could have been prevented.

Behind every statistic is a name, a face, a story. We owe it to them to act.

Encouragingly, we have made real progress together.

Since 2011, the number of annual deaths on the world's roads has dropped by 9 percent, and the fatality rate has fallen by 21 percent.

There are bright spots in every region.

Mexico has made safe mobility a universal right.

Zambia has stepped up data collection and analysis.

Thailand has strengthened emergency care.

Viet Nam has adopted strong laws and regulations.

The United Kingdom's new road safety strategy strengthens governance and accountability.

And the United Arab Emirates was one of ten countries that halved road fatalities in ten years.

The Marrakech Declaration adopted last year is driving progress.

And Africa's first legally binding road safety framework came into force this year.

Together, we've shown that development does not, and must not, mean more road deaths.

But it's not enough.

Road crashes are still the leading cause of death among children and young people aged five to 29.

Every one of those young lives had a future. We cannot accept losing them on the way to living it.

Our goal is a 50 percent drop in deaths by 2030.

And at the mid-point in the Decade of Action for Road Safety, the time for talk is over.

It's time to deliver.

That's what the declaration you are adopting today aims to do. I thank Kyrgyzstan and Slovakia for their leadership in negotiating it.

I commend Member States for the commitments you are making:

To adopting bold national strategies with targets, timelines and budgets;

To establishing lead agencies for road safety;

To improving data, laws, regulations and enforcement;

To strengthening the safety of vehicles and infrastructure;

To managing speed;

To enhancing rehabilitation and trauma care;

And to ensuring safe, affordable and accessible public transport.

The Global Plan for the Decade of Action charts the way forward.

Building safe road systems is complicated.

It requires a paradigm shift to make safety a priority.

It means designing streets for people first, not motor vehicles.

It means accepting that people make mistakes, and taking action to ensure those mistakes aren't deadly.

It means doing more to protect people who walk, cycle, or ride a motorbike, because their lives matter as much as anyone travelling behind the wheel.

This is not a job for the health sector alone. I hope you'll agree with me. Everyone has a role to play.

We need businesses to put safety at the core of their operations.

We need academia, civil society and the media to produce evidence and hold leaders to account.

We need youth movements to demand action and help us take it, because too often, it is their generation paying the highest price.

If we do this, the rewards are immense.

Safe streets can unlock huge gains for the health of people and planet.

When infrastructure is safe, more people choose to walk or cycle.

Every step, and every ride, reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

And if we give them the chance, more people choose public transport.

This means cleaner and cooler air, less congestion, and more vibrant public spaces.

It opens access to jobs, schools and opportunities.

It powers the green transition, and ensures more people live longer, healthier and happier lives.

All this is possible if we put people and safety first.

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

In a turbulent world of increasing division, we can all agree on safe streets.

We can all agree that everyone who sets out on a journey, to work, to school, to see the people they love, should reach their destination safely.

Let this declaration be more than words on a page.

Let it be a promise, to every family who has stood here today, and to every family who is not in this room but is living with loss.

We can make that happen. So together, let's do it, for them.

I thank you.