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CDC COLLABORATES WITH WHO TO CELEBRATE
WORLD HEALTH DAY 2004: ROAD TRAFFIC SAFETY

   Worldwide, road traffic injuries kill more than a million people and injure tens of millions more every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank predict that by 2020, the number of road traffic injuries will increase more than 60%.  To raise awareness of this significant public health problem, WHO made road safety the focus of its 2004 World Health Day celebration.  On April 7, 2004, high-profile events were held worldwide to raise awareness about road traffic injuries and public health approaches to preventing these injuries.  The theme of this celebration was “Road Safety is No Accident.”  In observance of World Health Day, WHO and the World Bank released the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, and the United Nations launched a major global initiative dedicated to road safety.

   In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and many other partner organizations participated in World Health Day activities.  CDC’s Injury Center staff represented DHHS and CDC at the WHO’s official introduction of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, held in Paris, and the U.S. launch of World Health Day, held in Washington DC at the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) headquarters.  World leaders and featured prominent speakers (the President of France and U.S. Secretary of Transportation, for example) attended these high-profile events.  At the Washington DC event, the director of the Injury Center’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention gave a presentation about alcohol-impaired driving and CDC’s role in addressing this issue in the United States.  At both the Paris and Washington DC events, a video message from the President of the United States was show

FAMILY ROAD SAFETY:
PROTECT THE ONES YOU LOVE

CDC’s theme to promote World Health Day 2004was “Family Road Safety: Protect the Ones You Love.”  CDC’s Injury Center coordinated a number of related events addressing road safety.  Activities focused on occupant protection, impaired driving, pedestrian safety, and helmet use.  The Injury Center distributed more than 3,800 World Health Day information kits, displayed World Health Day banners at injury conferences, and published information about World Health Day and the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

   The Injury Center, in association with the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, coordinated a Public Health Grand Rounds session about traffic safety.  The forum, which took place via a satellite broadcast and a Web cast, focused on the San Francisco Department of Health’s Traffic Safety Project.  Panelists included an injury researcher from CDC, the University of North Carolina, and the Automobile Association of America’s Office of Traffic Safety Policy. 

   During the week of World Health Day, CDC’s Injury Center addressed traffic safety within the agency by partnering with local and state of Georgia SAFE KIDS offices and the regional National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s DOT office to provide free inspections of child passenger safety seats to CDC employees.