A new initiative intended to finance programs that would help reduce worldwide crash casualties was announced on Tuesday in London.
The Driving Safety Initiative, created by the Commission for Global Road Safety, an independent group, is calling on the automobile industry to play a leading role in improving safety on the world’s roads through voluntary contributions added to the sale price of each new car.
“Car manufacturers and dealers can play an important, visible and positive role in saving lives and preventing disability, and we encourage them to support our proposal for a safety levy,” Lord George Robertson, the commission’s chairman, said in a statement.
Up to $140 million a year is expected to be raised to finance a variety of injury prevention programs, to make roads and vehicles safer and to create programs to improve driving behavior and post-crash care.
“It’s just $2, less than a cup of coffee,” but could help buy a helmet for a child in some countries, said Bella Dinh-Zarr, the North American director of Make Roads Safe, a global campaign, and director of road safety for the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society, a nonprofit group based in London that will administer the initiative.
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