Monday, July 28, 2025
In 2025, journalists from various countries in the Americas participated in a regional workshop on solutions journalism and road safety in Natal, Brazil. Organized by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the event supported the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety. The workshop aimed to transform how traffic incidents are reported, framing them as real, evidence-based solutions rather than tragedies. Traffic deaths in the Americas cause over 145,000 annual deaths and 4.1 million non-fatal injuries, with significant consequences for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Around the world, countries aim to halve road fatalities by 2030, reducing the current road mortality rate from 14.09 to 6.73 per 100,000 people. Ricardo Pérez Núñez emphasized that each death has 28 injured individuals, highlighting the need for safer, sustainable, inclusive, and equitable transport systems. PAHO/WHO views journalist training as a key pillar for driving road safety progress. The workshop addressed key challenges, promoting a systems-based approach, focusing on individual responsibility toward infrastructure and policies. Solutions included compact urban design, safe public transport, and active mobility. Victor Pavarino noted that traffic injuries are preventable, with a focus on systemic changes rather than just fixing the issue. Matthew Taylor stressed the importance of language in media, highlighting the need to link crashes to broader failures. He also introduced principles of solutions journalism, emphasizing evidence-based reporting on how societies address challenges, not just what went wrong. The event featured a site visit to Natal's new binary traffic system, which reduces risks and improves circulation, and included discussions from journalists and crash victim families.
Reference: PAHO/WHO convenes journalists to reshape how road safety is covered in Latin AmericaLabels: PAHO
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