Wurz addresses the United Nations 24 Apr 2007
Williams' Alex Wurz has spoken before the United Nations (UN) World Youth Assembly as part of the UN’s Global Road Safety Week. In his speech, entitled ‘Learning from a crash’, Wurz called for a more proactive approach to educating young people about driving.
Wurz is well qualified to talk on the issue - as well as his Formula One experience, his family runs an international road safety training business, which has helped cut road fatalities in his native Austria by 30 percent in two years.
“We can’t and don’t want to change the desire for the great feeling of freedom, mobility and liberty that comes from driving a car, but we must make sure that young drivers are aware of the dangers and make sure they live up to their responsibility,” Wurz told his audience in Geneva on Monday.
Wurz’s presentation was just a small part of the UN’s week-long initiative to heighten global awareness of road accidents, which claim the lives of 1.2 million people across the world each year, with huge personal and economic consequences.
“It is good to be involved in raising the profile of road safety as it is something I have a direct interest in and responsibility to as a racing driver,” Wurz said on his official website. “But much more simply, I am a father of two boys before I am a racing driver and I want to ensure that my kids, just like everyone else, come home safely.”
