Global Road Safety Week 2007- Road Safety is No Accident

April 23-29, 2007 is the First United Nation's Global Road Safety Week. This international event will focus on increasing awareness about road traffic safety among youth and will highlight risk and prevention information.

Globally, people ages 0-25 years account for more than 40 percent of the nearly 1.2 million road traffic deaths that occur each year. In the United States, motor vehicle crashes account for 30 percent of deaths in people ages 1-25 years, making it the leading cause of death for our young people. In the United States, Global Road Safety Week events will focus on teen drivers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is excited to take part in this effort and will focus on raising awareness about the important role parents play in keeping their teen drivers safe. In particular, parents can use graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems to guide and support their teen's road safety efforts

Research suggests that the most strict and comprehensive GDL programs are associated with 38 percent reductions in death and 40 percent reductions in injury among 16-year-old U.S. drivers. CDC hopes to increase awareness of this impact and help parents of teen drivers to learn more about the GDL requirements in their state.

CDC has developed a Global Road Safety Week 2007 website that provides information on teen driving and GDL systems and links to drivers licensing information for each state.

Visit the website at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/grsw/
If you have questions about CDC's Global Road Safety Week activities, please contact Michele Huitric at 770-488-1231 or mhuitric@cdc.gov