Experts From Europe and U.S. Exchange Insights and Strategies to Reduce Crashes, Save Lives and Reduce Injury

Getting to Vision Zero: Mass Road Safety Summit Report Released

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–With road crashes leading to hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries annually in Massachusetts — and impacting millions globally — experts from the United States and Europe gathered in Boston on Monday, October 28, to exchange insights and strategies for improving roadway safety. On December 12, organizers issued a report outlining the insights from the experts. It can be found here.

Getting to Vision Zero: Mass. Road Safety Summit, sponsored by Fundación MAPFRE with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and Boston Children’s Hospital, brought together leading experts and policymakers in transportation, urban planning, public health and technology. The summit served as a platform to discuss achieving Vision Zero, a global strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, by improving policy, innovation, enforcement and education.

“In Massachusetts, we are proud of our vibrant communities and bustling roads. However, with this vibrancy comes responsibility. Every year, we face the tragic consequences of road crashes, affecting families and communities throughout our state,” said Jaime Tamayo, Chief Representative of Fundación MAPFRE in the United States and Chief Executive Officer of MAPFRE USA. “In 2022, more than 42,000 people were killed in the U.S., and more than 20,000 in the European Union, due to road-related crashes. Through the conversations at this Summit, our goal is to bring about a future where these numbers are zero.”

“When we talk about these statistics, they’re numbers. But at MassDOT, we know they’re people,” Monica Tibbits-Nutt, Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary and CEO, said at the summit. “Massachusetts is a very safe state, but we still have fatalities. Each of those deaths were people whose friends and families were forever changed by their loss. Adding that human factor is incredibly important as we push for safety measures. So, let’s never forget about the human impact.”

“Sadly, every day there’s another family that is traumatized,” said Dr. David Mooney, trauma medical director at Boston Children’s Hospital. “For every child killed in a crash, another 40 are admitted to the hospital and another thousand are treated at the Emergency Department. Even among those who are uninjured, one third end up with stress disorders that can interfere with their education and social lives.”

The summit included talks delivered by Jaime Tamayo, Secretary Tibbits-Nutt, Álvaro Gómez, National Road Safety Observatory Director, Directorate General for Traffic, Ministry of Home Affairs, Spain, and Raquel Barrios, Director, YOURS. James T. Brett, President and CEO of The New England Council, conducted a fireside chat with Secretary Tibbits-Nutt. Jesus Monclus, Director of Injury Prevention and Road Safety, Fundación MAPFRE, delivered closing remarks.

Daniel Olohan, Chief Operating Officer of MAPFRE USA, moderated panel discussions that explored several topics. The panels included:

• The Human Impact: David Mooney, MD, MPH, Trauma Medical Director Boston Children’s Hospital; Cathy Andreozzi, MADD Victim Impact Speaker; Karin Valentine Goins, MPH, Program Director, Preventative and Behavioral Medicine University of Massachusetts Medical School; Raquel Barrios, Director, YOURS (International)
• Road Design to Auto Manufacturing – The Role of Innovation in Saving Lives: Oliver Carsten, University of Leeds (UK); Kris Carter, Chief Possibility Officer, MassDOT; David Zipper, Senior Fellow MIT Mobility Initiative; Anders Lie, PhD, Chalmers University of Technology
• Safety for Pedestrians, Bicyclists and Vulnerable Road Users: Dane Eifling, Mobility Coordinator, City of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Chris Dempsey, Partner, Speck Dempsey; Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Chief of Streets, City of Boston; Álvaro Gómez, National Road Safety Observatory Director, Directorate General for Traffic, Ministry of Home Affairs, Spain
• Managing Speed and Curbing Distracted Driving: Frank Mütze, European Transport Safety Council (Belgium); Bonnie Polin, State Safety Engineer, MassDOT; Sam Madden, Head of Computer Science, EECS department at MIT; Jay Winsten, PhD, Lecturer Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative

About MAPFRE Foundation’s Road Safety Initiative: Fundación MAPFRE, a non-profit based in Madrid, Spain, and with North American headquarters in Webster, Massachusetts, aims to promote the well-being of society and citizens. Prevention and Road Safety is an action area to which the foundation is dedicated. It believes that if the Vision Zero movement in 1997 led to a revolution in our understanding of Road Safety, the current goal should be to reach the point where there are no fatalities or people injured in traffic crashes. The Look Both Ways program aims to eliminate road-related fatalities and serious injury, through the PSA contest and an interactive station that uses a Virtual Reality driving simulation experience and React Challenge, a mobile game, to test students’ safe driving ability when faced with distractions behind the wheel.

Contacts

Caitlin Creamer, Corporate Affairs and Communications Director

MAPFRE

CCreamer@mapfreusa.com; (508) 949-4802

Amelia Aubourg, Chief Communications Officer MassDOT

amelia.s.aubourg@dot.state.ma.us (857) 408-0297