Road Safety is an Indicator of Societal Progress!

No matter where my travels take me, I find myself constantly intrigued by the roads of the world. Whether it's the stunning 10-kilometer-long bi-level tunnel I take each day to the office, the bustling streets of Lagos, Nigeria, or the massive Pearl River Delta bridge-and-tunnel expressway that connects Hong Kong and Macao [1]: Each tells a story. Yet beyond the ways they can inspire us, and beyond their purely practical functions, roads must above all be safe.

There’s a statistic that has left a lasting impression on me: Every year, 1.3 million people die and 20 to 50 million are seriously injured on the roads of the world [2]. That's why I accepted to participate in the FIA High Level Panel chaired by Jean Todt, United Nations Ambassador for Road Safety.

Road safety, as I see it, is a crucial indicator of societal progress. It is officially designated a public health issue by both the United Nations and the World Health Organization, which have developed international guidelines to help curb traffic-related deaths and injuries. The UN even established the Road Safety Trust Fund in 2018 to subsidize their member states’ efforts to reduce vehicular accidents.

These measures impact everyone: drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, even consumers of goods delivered by truck. And they have a particular meaning for me: Safety is one of Total’s cardinal values, and prevention of road traffic accidents is a priority commitment. Transportation is indeed a major part of Total’s operations. The Group fuels drivers in 130 countries, who cover more than 700 million kilometers per year — the equivalent of a thousand round-trips to the Moon! We are keenly aware of our influence and responsibilities within the transportation sector worldwide, and as such have and will always consider the improvement of road safety to be the heart of our mission.

So what practical steps can we take to solve such a crucial global challenge? One obvious way is to support these wide-reaching safety global projects, and the Total Foundation continued its longstanding contribution on that front with a pledge last year of $1 million at the launch of the United Nations Road Safety Trust Fund. This fund aims to contribute to two major outcomes, assisting UN member states to substantially curb the number of fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes, as well as reduce economic losses resulting from these crashes.

It’s also imperative for us to encourage technological developments in road safety. While the security of autonomous vehicles is a question that remains to be answered, I see major potential in the ways artificial intelligence can make driving safer. One interesting example of that is Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA): With half of all accidents caused by driver error related to speed, ISA is a new feature that uses cameras and GPS data to recognize the velocity of a vehicle, automatically informing drivers if they accelerate beyond the speed limit. The European Commission has included ISA as a key safety measure in their regulation to minimize road accidents.

But technology alone is not enough, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. We must remember that every community has their own variables to consider: While SUVs increasingly dominate the roads in the United States, India leads the world in the two-wheeler market. The rules of the road change from one place to the next, from traffic laws to whether motorcyclists are legally obligated to wear a helmet — and the same goes for pedestrians, who move very differently in cities than they might in rural areas.

The value of localized solutions cannot be overemphasized. I recently read that France’s number of road fatalities is at a record low. This is excellent news, and comes just two years after Total signed a call to action launched by the French Interior Ministry to work with companies to help reduce the number of road accidents. 

You wouldn’t think twice today about buckling up (I hope!). But it wasn’t until the mid 1970s that seat belts were required by law in cars built in the United States. And just last year, Bangladesh passed a new law to toughen enforcement against drivers and passengers who don’t buckle up. Not all countries move at the same speed! As we’ve seen in France, working hand-in-hand with national governments seems to me more important than ever if we want to improve road safety.

In this spirit, the Total Foundation — along with the Michelin Corporate Foundation and the Global Road Safety Partnership — launched an international road safety education program that uses an innovative digital platform, tailor-made for each community. For the next three years, we’re committed to teaching 100,000 children aged 10-18 about road safety and, together with Michelin, we’re contributing a combined 1.5 million euros to the initiative.

Whatever the roads we may take, I am convinced that the right mix of education, innovation and regulation can lead us safely to the future!

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[1] Inaugurated last October by the Chinese president, a 55-km expressway now connects Hong Kong, Macao and mainland China, via a network of undersea tunnels and bridges — including the longest sea bridge in the world.

[2] Source: World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/road-safety