On November 26, 2019, Ukrainian public organizations and initiatives, including the NGO "Vision Zero", presented the Manifesto for Safe Roads . 26 participating organizations call on the authorities and society to change the situation with the high level of mortality and injuries on the roads. The Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law , within the framework of the Campaign "For Safe Roads", became one of the initiators of the Manifesto together with partners. Public activists also announced the creation of a coalition that will work on the implementation of the action plan. The goal of the manifesto is to restore safety to Ukrainian roads and streets for all road users. To this end, the participants propose a set of actions consisting of 11 specific steps. Their goal is to reduce the number of road accidents and significantly reduce their consequences, and in the future, reduce road fatalities to zero. “The problem of road safety is very acute in Ukraine, and the reason for this is the lack of systematic work in this direction. Public organizations and initiatives whose activities are related to transport and safety have united and drawn up a Manifesto. We voice specific issues, and also combine our efforts and expertise in order to solve this problem and return a sense of safety and comfort to Ukrainian cities and Ukrainian roads ,” said Bohdan Lepyavko, head of U-Cycle (NGO “Kyiv Cyclists Association”). 

The signatories call for efforts to be directed against risk factors for road users. “The key factors that affect traffic safety on Ukrainian roads are speeding, ignoring seat belts and child seats, driving while intoxicated, and using phones while driving. In order to change people’s behavior, the state must direct efforts to address these problems. In addition to creating an effective mechanism for holding traffic violators accountable, it is necessary to conduct systematic information and awareness-raising campaigns,” emphasized Olesya Kholopik , Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law, Coordinator of the Campaign “For Safe Roads. Read the full text of the Manifesto at the link 

Making infrastructure safer is the main task when building new roads and streets. The task of the audit is to identify errors at all stages of design and adjust the design documentation taking into account best practices in the field of traffic safety. This is much cheaper than making changes to the existing traffic organization when the area has already become a place of concentration of road accidents,” emphasized Kostyantyn Shcherbachenko, head of the NGO “Ukrainian Association of Road Safety Auditors.” The principle of zero tolerance for road deaths and injuries should be clearly implemented in legislation and all regulatory documents, said Denys Radyuk , President of AVERE Ukraine, the European Association for Electromobility, Sustainable Transport and Infrastructure of Ukraine.

“This principle individualizes each case, prioritizes actions and funding to eliminate the causes and excludes its further typical repetition throughout the country. The human right to live and remain unharmed is systematically violated. Every evening, through the “road meat grinder”, fewer people return home than they left in the morning. The “statistical” approach depersonalizes people and human destinies, and assumes a certain, supposedly inevitable or “normal” level of the number of cases for a certain period. This is the tolerance threshold. This is life. It should be zero,” he concluded. Participants of the Manifesto “For Safe Roads” invite like-minded people to join the initiative. You can sign the Manifesto by contacting the initiating organizations. The text of this news was prepared by our friends from CEDEM , we are grateful for their cooperation.