Reflections on Moscow

Two moments stood out for me. The first was when Casey Marenge was wheeled onto the stage. Casey runs an NGO in Nairobi, and joined us in the campaign 2 years ago, when she organised a number of petition signings and lobbied Kenyan ministers and UN officials to do more for road safety. Casey is paraplegic, paralysed from the neck down, as a result of a road crash which killed two of her friends. She is matter of fact in her courage, and dynamic and eloquent in equal measure. Her arrival on the stage contrasted sharply with the boilerplate platitudes and dry statistics of some of the preceding official speakers. Casey speaks with authority and has no need to raise her voice or indulge in histrionics. It was a moving moment, and you could sense the change in mood in the vast conference hall.

The other key moment was the arrival of President Medvedev. From where I stood, right at the back of the room, this seemed like the moment when road safety finally arrived on its rightful stage. More than a thousand delegates rose as one, the banks of photographers and cameras whirred and flashed, there was a palpable energy in the room. This was some of what we had been working towards. It felt like recognition. Not on the scale of climate change in Copenhagen in a few weeks time, but a start.