Inaugural winners of excellence in road safety awards named

The four winners of the 2024 Bloomberg Philanthropies Excellence in Road Safety Awards are:

• National Road Safety Agency in Argentina for its landmark law saving lives and preventing injuries caused by drinking and driving. In April 2023, the new national law changed the legal blood alcohol limit while driving to zero, which applies to every national road in the country. The Jujuy Province passed a similar zero tolerance law in 2018 and saw a 37 per cent reduction in road deaths in the year following its adoption
• Secretariat of Mobility in Bogotá, Colombia, for its bold actions to design streets that protect the most vulnerable road users: bicyclists and pedestrians. The Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme has transformed neighbourhoods through tactical interventions like safe intersections, pedestrian space and loading zones that promote sustainable mobility and improve public spaces, reducing total crashes and average speed
• National Road Safety Observatory in Tunisia for its transformative digital crash database that enables better decision-making and investments in road safety interventions based on geo-located crash data. By connecting the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Health data with the National Road Safety Observatory (ONSR) through this new collection tool, recording and analysing crash details is easier and the data are more accurate. First piloted in the northeast region, the joint government database has since been scaled to cover the entire country.
• Pleiku City, Viet Nam, for its groundbreaking work to manage speeds around schools. The Slow Zones, Safe Zones program reduces the school zone speed limit to 30kph as part of a comprehensive approach, which has gained national traction. In addition to covering 31 primary schools in Pleiku City, officials will implement infrastructure modifications at 13 schools across other regions of the country to demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach to local leaders.

“Road safety remains an urgent global issue that requires the utmost attention from governments,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general. “We commend the incredible achievements of all the award winners, as well as those nominated, to make our roads safer. Through these tireless efforts, many countries are on a path to not only achieve safe and sustainable mobility, but also a healthier and better future.”