Overview
- Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, unveiled the Indian leg of the Make A Safety Statement campaign in New Delhi, calling road crashes a “silent pandemic.”
- Digital billboards and posters will run in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru alongside social media messaging that urges seat belts and helmets, safe speeds, no phone use, and sober, rested driving that respects pedestrians and cyclists.
- Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar released an endorsement video and was named a Global Champion for Road Safety to help amplify the messages.
- In parallel, the UN announced a UN Road Safety Fund–financed project to strengthen financing frameworks and implementation capacity in Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam, coordinated by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office with technical support from WHO, UNICEF and UNESCAP.
- The push follows estimates of about 153,972 deaths a year in India—roughly 600 a day—and a World Bank–cited economic toll near 7% of GDP, underscoring the urgency set out under the Marrakesh Declaration.