GARY LIDDLE APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF iRAP

iRAP (the International Road Assessment Programme) has announced Gary Liddle as its new Chairman.  With the vision for a world free of high-risk roads, the charity is already helping save lives in over 80 countries worldwide, including through the AusRAP programme and partnerships in Australia led by the Australian Automobile Association.

He succeeds John Dawson who has steered the charity from the beginning.  With over 1.2 million people killed every year on the world’s roads, iRAP was established as a new global institution to support the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.  The charity works in partnership with major donor FIA Foundation and other key global partners including the UN, World Health Organisation, World Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies as well as auto-clubs, government agencies and road owners at the national level. 

iRAP is now helping development institutions and authorities to reshape billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure with a focus on safety for all road users – pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and vehicle occupants.  The partnerships in high, middle and low-income countries alike are saving tens of thousands of people from death or serious injury every year.  New roads are being built to 3-star or better standards and existing roads are being upgraded to elevate roads to a 3, 4 and 5-star standard for all road users.

Gary Liddle is well known in his recent roles as a top transport official in Victoria and his Board-level roles in key national bodies including Austroads and ARRB Group.  Victoria has a global reputation in road safety having pioneered many education, enforcement and engineering initiatives including seat belts, drink-drive, safer road infrastructure programmes and innovation in reducing the financial and social cost of bodily injury.  Gary Liddle’s senior appointments in Victoria have included CEO of VicRoads, CEO of Public Transport Victoria, Deputy Secretary of Transport and most recently as Enterprise Professor of Transport at the University of Melbourne. 

John Dawson said: “I could not leave the charity in safer hands.  Gary Liddle has been a frontrunner in one of the world’s most progressive authorities in road safety.  Victoria was one of the first states to introduce a formal Road Safety Investment Plan, with a commitment to A$1 billion over 10 years. Gary’s contribution and leadership will be respected worldwide by the authorities who must act if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal to halve road deaths by 2020.”

Gary Liddle said: “John’s contribution has been immense. With applications in more than 80 countries, rich and poor alike, iRAP’s success speaks for itself.  I am determined to take forward iRAP’s vision of a world free of high risk roads and its global potential to help save hundreds of thousands of lives.”