El Salvador is the venue for the eighth global road safety congress, whose motto this year is “rethinking road safety: mobility for people and the planet”, and which brings together 214 participants from 61 countries.
The global meeting is organized by the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and co-sponsored by the Vice Ministry of Transportation of El Salvador and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez; and the Vice Minister of Transportation, Nelson Reyes, highlighted the actions and road safety strategies developed by the government of President Nayib Bukele.
Some of the actions highlighted by Minister Rodríguez are the establishment of a network of bicycle paths, the installation of pedestrian traffic lights, the installation of road signs, and the release of road spaces for pedestrians.
«We have a road safety council, and from there, road education and accident reduction tasks are carried out. Last year there were 7% fewer accidents, but we still have to continue working hard on the accident rate,” said the minister.
Similarly, the head of the Ministry of Public Works pointed out that in El Salvador a strong reduction in homicides has been achieved, for which he stressed that they will also focus efforts on reducing accidents and deaths from road accidents.
As part of the congress, a symposium will happen, where they will present a statement calling for evidence-based road safety actions, including public policies and specific implementations to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists; transparent and responsible investment to make roads safe; and the participation of road safety NGOs in decision-making.