During a special ceremony on November 17, preceding the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Brasilia, HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO presented his prestigious international road safety award to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), a global NGO.
The award recognized the organization’s contribution to global workplace road safety. Each year, nearly 1.3 million people are killed on roads worldwide, and up to 50 million more are injured. More than one quarter of all fatal road traffic crashes are work-related, according to the World Health Organization.
NETS received the award in recognition of its outstanding work over a number of years which culminated in the development and distribution of The Comprehensive Guide to Road Safety™, a widely available guide designed to aid employers with fleets of any size at various stages of road safety program development. This includes those who are preparing to initiate a program, in the early stages of policy and program development or managing more mature road safety management systems and interventions. The Guide is made available free of charge, in 22 languages via www.trafficsafety.org.
The Comprehensive Guide to Road Safety™ is unique in that it brings to one document the best road safety programs available from the public, private and NGO sectors. The Guide was written with the assistance of NETS’ Board of Directors, drawing from their companies’ road safety best practices. It also incorporates information gathered by NETS’ STRENGTH IN NUMBERS® Road Safety Benchmark members, representing more than 100 companies with fleet operations in 153 countries. The Guide supports the goals of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, 2011-2020, the global World Health Organization-led initiative to improve road safety around the world.
Each year the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award publicly recognizes the most outstanding achievements and innovations designed to improve road safety.
Prince Michael presented his award to Jack Hanley, Executive Director of NETS.
Congratulating the winner, Prince Michael said: “The contribution made by the members of NETS within their own businesses is magnificent and I applaud them for going one step further by reaching out in this way.”
Jack Hanley, NETS Executive Director, said, “NETS is grateful to HRH Prince Michael and the selection committee for the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. NETS is honored to receive it. Through its efforts with its board of directors and member companies, NETS works with employers around the world to improve the road safety of company drivers, all employees and the communities where the employees live and work. With thousands of downloads since its launch, The Guide is a key component of this strategy.”