Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Team Members Participate in Road Safety Meetings in London

On May 7-8, 2019, Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) team members traveled to London to participate in a pair of meetings designed to discuss the adoption of a target to halve deaths and serious injuries from road crashes beyond 2020.

JH-IRU Director Dr. Abdul Bachani and Assistant Scientist Dr. Connie Hoe attended an international roundtable hosted by the Towards Zero Foundation to examine the current state of global road safety, as well as current and future sustainable development goals (SDGs). Among the existing SDGs, unanimously adopted in September 2015, target 3.6 aims to halve the number of global traffic deaths and injuries by 2020.

JH-IIRU Senior Technical Advisor Dr. Margie Peden led a discussion on setting future targets for serious injuries, while collaborator Jessica Truong, Vice President for Programmes of Toward Zero Foundation, concluded the roundtable with a conversation on selecting targets for 2030.

“It’s imperative that we continue to set and work towards sustainable development goals targeting road safety across the globe,” said Dr. Bachani. “As we approach 2020, we’re working to develop additional evidence-based recommendations to be applied by all UN Member States.”

The next day, on May 8, Drs. Bachani, Hoe, and Peden joined in the second meeting of the expert panel for the Commonwealth Road Safety Initiative (CRSI), which officially launched this spring by HRH Prince Michael of Kent in an effort to raise the profile of road safety and encourage stronger action by the Commonwealth’s 53 member countries.

The team met with HRH Prince Michael of Kent and the other expert panel members as they drafted recommendations to be included in their upcoming report and agenda for road safety strategy.