With some 1.3 million drivers, passengers and pedestrians dying each year on the world’s roads, the United Nations took a major step to address this tragedy by launching on Thursday a trust fund to spur action that could save lives and prevent the loss of opportunity associated with road accidents.

Some 650 people are killed each day in road accidents throughout Africa, a senior United Nations official today said, calling for more to be done to keep drivers – as well as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – safe.

Spotlighting the relationship between speeding and traffic fatalities – speeding contributes to one in three traffic deaths – the UN health agency, ahead of Global Road Safety Week, is urging countries to take measures to curb dangerous driving behaviour.

With more than 3,400 people, many of them young men and women, losing their lives on the world's roads every day, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims with a strong call to scale up action to prevent these deaths.