Global experts attending the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion urged cities on Nov 21 to pay more attention to road safety and promote cross-sectoral collaboration to reduce deaths caused by traffic accidents.  

More than 15 million people get injured or die from road accidents across the world every year, according to Bernhard Schwartländer, the World Health Organization's representative in China.

He said road accidents are frequently seen in developing and middle-income countries. The number of young people that die from road accidents is more than number of people that die from AIDS and tuberculosis.

Wang Changjun, director of Traffic Management Research Institute of Ministry of Public Security, said that the number of Chinese driver license holders has grown almost 30-fold in the past three decades. People with less than three years of driving experience cause 30 percent of the deaths on the road, according to Wang.

"We urgently need to promote the concept of safe driving among people," Wang said. "We have made great efforts to apply many new technologies in our everyday administration and education activities to reduce the chance of road accidents."

Wang said security departments should not be the only party to promote road safety.

"A road accident can be caused by a series of errors including drivers, vehicles and the environment. Departments have to work together to improve road planning, design, construction and maintenance services to prevent traffic accidents," Wang said.

Cities in China have made efforts to enhance road safety in the past few years.

Suzhou in Jiangsu province, for example, has issued regional regulations to reduce the chance of road accidents. The city's administrative departments, such as its urban planning department and construction department, are working together to ensure road safety begins from the planning stages.

Road safety administrators applied strict rules in safety management. There are emergency mechanisms in place to ensure that people who get injured from road traffic accidents can receive proper treatments.

The number of traffic accidents in Suzhou dropped 6.7 percent on average in the past five years, while the number of illegal road activities reduced by over 40 percent. Suzhou's efforts in road safety management received recognitions from the World Health Organization. The city was awarded by WHO for its best practices in health city construction in 2014.