Bonita Springs participates in Global Road Safety Week

Kudos to Bonita Springs officials and Bonita Springs Middle School for participating in last week's event to raise awareness about the need to enhance the safety of children on our roads.   The Bonita Springs City Council is participating in the national Mayors' Challenge for bike/ped safety, and this event was a great way to raise community awareness.

5/8/15 Press Release by Safe Kids Lee/Collier Counties

BONITA SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER MIKE GIBSON JOINS LOCAL CHILDREN AND SAFETY ADVOCATES TO PROMOTE GLOBAL ROAD SAFETY
United Nations and communities around the world call for safer roads for children during Global Road Safety Week.

Bonita Springs, FL - Students from Bonita Springs Middle School, safety advocates, City of Bonita Springs personnel including City Council Member Mike Gibson and Code Enforcement Director Frank Cassidy, and the Lee County Sheriff's Office met today at Riverside Park to raise awareness and challenge local leaders to enhance the safety of children on the roads. The event was one of hundreds around the world during Global Road Safety Week in which communities came together to take action on the issue of road safety for children. As part of the the City of Bonita Springs Mayors' Challenge for Safer People & Safer Streets Challenge city staff assisted in the #SaveKidsLives campaign.

"Road safety is a serious issue that is likely to grow significantly in the immediate future, if we don't act now," said Sally Kreuscher, Safe Kids Coordinator at the Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida. "Today's event is about taking action and spreading the word during Global Road Safety Week and beyond to make a real difference in the lives of our most vulnerable road users."

Global Road Safety Week supports the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and draws attention to the urgent need to better protect children from death and injury due to road traffic collisions. Each day, more than 500 children die in road collisions globally and 11 here in the United States, while tens of thousands are injured, often suffering lifelong disabilities. By 2015, road traffic injuries will be the leading cause of death for children over the age of five years in developing countries.


About Safe Kids Lee/Collier Counties
Safe Kids Lee/Collier Counties works to prevent unintentional childhood injury, the number one cause of death for children in the United States.  Safe Kids Lee/Collier Counties is a member of Safe Kids Worldwide, a global network of organizations dedicated to preventing unintentional injury. Safe Kids Lee/Collier Counties was founded in 1996 and is led by Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida. For more information, visit www.safekidsleecollier.org<http://www.safekidsleecollier.org/>.


About Safe Kids Worldwide
Safe Kids Worldwide is a nonprofit organization working to prevent childhood injury, the number one killer of children in the United States. Throughout the world, almost one million children die of an injury each year, and almost every one of these tragedies is preventable. Safe Kids works with an extensive network of more than 500 coalitions in the U.S. and with partners in more than 25 countries to reduce traffic injuries, drownings, falls, burns, poisonings and more. Since 1988, Safe Kids has helped reduce the U.S. childhood death rate from unintentional injury by 60 percent. Working together, we can do much more for kids everywhere. Join our effort at safekids.org<http://www.safekids.org/>.

About #SaveKidsLives
#SaveKidsLives is the worldwide and official campaign for the Third United Nations Global Road Safety Week (4-10 May 2015). The campaign is calling for action to save children's lives on the roads around the world. It does so by highlighting the plight of children on the roads; generating worldwide action to better ensure the safety of children on the roads; and calling for inclusion of safe and sustainable transport in the post-2015 development agenda. The campaign operates on the principles of the Decade of Action<http://www.who.int/roadsafety/decade_of_action/en/> for Road Safety 2011-2020 and is managed by a broad coalition of members from the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration<http://www.who.int/roadsafety/en/>.