Senior figures from the FIA gathered today, 5 October, at the Automóvil Club Argentino (ACA) headquarters for a presentation and press conference on key projects in Mobility and Sport.

Following the opening of the FIA’s Road Safety Exhibition yesterday, 4 October, as part of the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games, FIA President Jean Todt was once again joined by Deputy President for Sport, Graham Stoker, Vice Presidents for Sport José Abed and Carlos García Remohí, ACA President Jorge Rosales and Secretary of the ACA Executive Board, Dr Juan Manuel Lissarrague, to highlight the crucial collaboration between the Federation and the Argentine Club.

Today’s presentations to the assembled press centred mainly on the #3500LIVES Global Road Safety Campaign, and the local activation undertaken by the ACA within the overall campaign framework. The newly released ‘Road to Change’ video, featuring Campaign ambassador, FIA High Level Panel for Safety Spokesperson and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Michelle Yeoh, was shown alongside a presentation highlighting the ACA’s work and promotion of several Golden Rules for Road Safety.

President Todt emphasised the crucial role of education in combating the road safety pandemic, and fielded questions specific to Argentina’s major road issues, including road infrastructure, law enforcement for speeding and distracted driving. He also paid tribute to the many great motor sport legends coming from Argentina.

“The Automobile Club of Argentina has always been an inspiring Member in developing Mobility and addressing road safety,” said the FIA President. “Argentina has a population of 45 million and 6,000 lose their lives on the roads every year, with 200,000 seriously injured, and these statistics are simply not acceptable. That is why the input of the ACA is essential, and we urge you, together with the government and institutions, to make sure that these deaths stop, and this is why the campaign is so important.”

As host of the event, Mr Rosales explained the Club’s now decade long Itinerant Education for Road Safety Programme (PIESVI), the third phase of which is just now being launched with special emphasis on the use of child safety seats.

Mr Rosales said: “Our initiative aimed to reach one hundred localities of the interior of our country, taking to each one of them the elementary and necessary messages about road safety, with the aim of informing users to respect their own life and that of their neighbours.

“Now, aware of the imperative need to continue with this work, the ACA has decided to carry out phase three of the PIESVI, a programme that will visit localities of the Atlantic Coast, the centre of the country, and Mesopotamia Argentina. The ACA is convinced that the sum of the efforts and actions of the different actors will contribute to the reduction of fatal traffic crashes. It is more a question of attitude, it is personal conviction and decision as a habit to use these seats, for the health of our children.

“We invite you all to join together with the ACA and the FIA to this new edition of the PIESVI.”