聯合國禁止其工作人員開車時打手機
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he was banning all drivers of United Nations vehicles from texting while driving, to back efforts to curb a practice believed to kill thousands of people each year.
Ban made the announcement at a UN event where the United States and Russia issued what they called a "global call to end distracted driving."
Ban said he was issuing an "administrative instruction" to promote road safety that would include a prohibition on texting at the wheel. UN officials said the world body's legal department was studying the order and could not say what sanctions anyone caught sending text messages on cellphones or other hand-held devices while driving would receive.
The instruction potentially applies to all UN employees, of whom there are more than 70,000 worldwide.
"I want every driver in the world to get the message: texting while driving kills," the UN chief said.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that in the United States alone, nearly 6,000 people died and more than half a million were injured in "distracted driving" crashes in 2008.
Some 32 countries have passed laws restricting the use of cellphones and other hand-held devices while driving.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said measures to combat the "epidemic" of distracted driving were being incorporated into an action plan being prepared by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies for a road safety decade due to run from 2011 to 2020.
聯合國祕書長潘基文於本週三宣佈，聯合國將嚴禁該機構所有工作人員在駕駛公車時發手機短信，對遏制這一行爲給予支持。據信，開車時發短信每年致使數千人喪生。
潘基文在當天聯合國的一次活動上宣佈了該禁令，美國和俄羅斯在該活動上啓動了一項名爲“共同抵禦分心駕駛”的全球行動。
潘基文說，聯合國已發佈一項旨在改善道路安全的“行政指令”，其中包括禁止在開車時發短信。據聯合國官員介紹，聯合國的法律事務部門目前正在學習這一指令，現在還不能說被抓到在開車時用手機或其它手提設備發短信將受到怎樣的處罰。
這一指令面向聯合國分佈在世界各地的所有7萬多名工作人員。
潘基文說：“我希望全世界的人都能意識到這一點：開車時發短信是要付出生命代價的。”
美國駐聯合國特使蘇珊•賴斯和交通署祕書雷•拉胡德說，2008年，僅美國就有近6千人在“分心駕駛”導致的交通事故中喪生，另有超過50萬人在此類事故中受傷。
目前全球約有32個國家已通過禁止在開車時使用手機和其它手提設備的法案。
俄羅斯駐聯合國特使維塔利•丘爾金說，旨在解決分心駕駛這一普遍問題的措施正被納入由世界衛生組織和聯合國其它機構編撰的一項道路安全十年（2011年至2020年）行動計劃。
