The International Seminar on "Safer Roads that Save Lives: PIARC Contributions to the UN's Targets and Initiatives" will run from 17 to 19 October 2018. It will be jointly organised by the World Road Association (PIARC), the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China and the Research Institute of Highway (China) and will be held in Beijing.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 100,000 people are killed or injured every day on the world's roads, with the cost of road trauma estimated at between 2 and 5% of annual GDP in each country. In response to this challenge, UN agencies have established global road safety targets and progress is being tracked globally. The establishment of a UN Road Safety Fund is also being progressed to accelerate global action. Safer road and transport infrastructure will be key to saving lives and meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals for road safety, infrastructure investment and access to safe and sustainable transport.

Jointly organised by PIARC Technical Committees C.1 (National Road Safety Policies and Programs) and C.2 (Design and Operations of Safer Road Infrastructure), the seminar will be attended by representatives of governments and affiliated agencies, as well as experts and researchers from numerous countries. They will share their knowledge and expertise, discuss ideas and experiences, transfer information and technologies and examine a wide selection of questions to improve road safety.

For this event, both PIARC Technical Committees on Road Safety will contribute to the seminar's programme. The seminar will showcase global and local policy, strategy, investment, innovation and research success, that can be shared and duplicated around the world through resources, such as the Road Safety Manual and the global PIARC community.