On Wednesday, May 19 at 10:30 a.m, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and senior representatives from the United States and Russia will join together at the United Nations to launch a global effort to address the growing epidemic of distracted driving.
With approximately 600 million passenger cars on the road today and 4.6 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide, the deadly epidemic of distracted driving is on the rise. Distracted drivers are about four times as likely to be involved in a crash as those who are focused on driving, and drivers who are texting are more than 20 times more likely to crash than non-distracted drivers.
In 2008, nearly 6,000 people in the United States were killed and more than half a million were injured in crashes involving distracted driving.
WHO:
* United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
* United States Ambassador Susan Rice
* Secretary Ray LaHood, United States Department of Transportation
* Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin
* Jennifer Smith, President, Focus Driven
