THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2023 59 AFSA NEWS AFSA Member Survey on Overseas Road Safety Vehicle crashes are a major cause of death for people living in lower- and middleincome countries around the world. In fact, even though these countries have only 60 percent of the world’s vehicles, they are home to 90 percent of global road deaths. Members of the Foreign Service are certainly not immune to the dangers of overseas road travel. There are 16 names on the AFSA memorial plaques in the State Department’s C Street lobby of Foreign Service members who were killed in car crashes while on duty overseas. Founding of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT). Road crashes are also one of the leading causes of U.S. citizen deaths overseas. One of those Americans killed overseas was Aron Sobel, a fourth-year medical student on vacation in Türkiye in 2003 when his bus crashed. After his death, Aron’s mother, Rochelle Sobel, started ASIRT to help prevent other needless deaths by raising awareness of the prevalence and causes of overseas road crashes. In the run-up to the U.N. Global Road Safety Week in May 2023, AFSA partnered with ASIRT to send a survey to members to better understand their experiences with road safety overseas. We received almost 800 responses. Many Foreign Service members and their families have been involved in crashes resulting in deaths and serious injury, and cited reckless driving, speeding, and poor road design and conditions as principal reasons for these incidents. Location and Circumstances of Crashes. The countries in which respondents experienced crashes were diverse. Vehicle crashes occurred most frequently in Nigeria and Pakistan; bicycle crashes occurred most often in Mexico and Peru; and pedestrian fatalities and injuries due to crashes happened most often in Uganda, Liberia, and Poland. Respondents told us that reckless driving, driving with excessive speed, poor road conditions, and unsafe road design were the principal reasons contributing to road crashes. When asked to recommend improvements, members suggested that better road design, more accountability for reckless drivers (including stronger law enforcement), and improved maintenance of roads could prevent future deaths and injuries. More Consistent Information Sharing Needed. One of the primary purposes of conducting the survey was to raise awareness of the dangers of crashes overseas, generally, and to help increase consistent information sharing, especially in overseas posts. Many respondents told us they received information on road safety either before they left for post or upon arriving at post. However, a significant number said they had not received information or a briefing on road safety upon entry on duty or that they received briefings only upon arrival but would welcome refresher briefings. A high number of respondents commended foreign affairs counter threat (FACT) training as being very useful in increasing defensive driving skills, and others suggested making the Smith System Driver Improvement Institute course, most commonly given to drivers of U.S. government vehicles, available to all U.S. direct hires in the embassy/consulate community. AFSA cares deeply about road safety for Foreign Service members; in April 2023, President Eric Rubin made road safety the topic of his column in the FSJ. Find his reflections at https://bit.ly/ PV-RdSafety. The association will continue to urge greater efforts to reduce road deaths and injuries. AFSA also negotiated a discounted price on ASIRT’s road safety country reports. The reports are usually $50 each but are offered to AFSA members at $40. To obtain one, fill out the form at https://bit.ly/ASIRT-report and enter $40 in the “Subscription Level Amount” field for a one-time purchase. n AFSA
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