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The Addis Ababa city administration signed a 15 million dollar cooperation agreement with Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries in the capital.
The agreement signed yesterday, October 27, 2020, is part of a global 240 million dollar technical support that will last until 2025.
The Addis Ababa City Administration Deputy Mayor Adanech Abebe, in an online conference with heads of BIRGS, said that the agreement would significantly contribute to road safety improvement works in the city.
“The support will bring closer to our goal, assuring the free movement of our citizens,” said Adanech, adding that the city administration will work closely to ensure road safety.
Bloomberg Philanthropies Program Director, Kelly Larson, said, “she is happy to work with Addis Ababa, one of the 30 cities participating in BIGRS project that aims to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities.
Bloomberg Philanthropies, an organization that encompasses all of the charitable works of the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg, launched BIGRS back in 2010.
The project, which is in its third phase, seeks to reduce fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes in low- and middle-income countries and cities by strengthening road safety legislation at the national level and implementing proven road safety interventions at the city level.
In 2020, the BIGRS commenced its third phase, which is a 240 million dollar initiative that builds from the success and impact of the phase one two works,
According to The Global Road Safety Road Partnership, a Geneva-based non-profit organization, the two phases together saved up to an estimated 312,000 lives and prevented up to 11.5 million injuries.
The new phase of the BIGRS will run until 2025 and aims to save 600,000 lives and prevent up to 22 million injuries in low- and middle-income countries.
In the past phases, the program has supported the Addis Ababa city administration by focusing on the causes of major road traffic accidents such as speed driving and drunk driving in Addis Ababa.
The project also helped formulate and implement safe road policies related to strategic communication, law enforcement, and surveillance work.
There are close to 1.2 million vehicles in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa accounts for 56 percent of all the vehicles and around 13 pc of all car accidents in the country. In the last fiscal year, the city recorded, 455 deaths which showed a five pc decrease from the year before. Each year, 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around the world
