Today's event in San Juan was the latest edition of the International Road Safety Forums programme carried out by the Abertis Group, the world leader in transport infrastructure management, with the aim of providing specific solutions via various initiatives to improve road safety on the roads of the countries where it operates including Puerto Rico.

"As a member of this major group of companies that comprise the Abertis Group, Metropistas' priority is to integrate the Group's overall vision for road safety into its operations in Puerto Rico with the aim of building a future without victims of vehicle accidents. With this in mind, we aspire to become a benchmark for road safety which can inspire our employees, partners and collaborators," said Gonzalo Alcalde, CEO of Metropistas.

Sergi Loughney, Director of Corporate Reputation and Communication at Abertis and Chairman of the abertis Foundation, explained the benefits of public-private partnership in the field of child road safety through abertis and UNICEF's groundbreaking agreement to tackle road accidents, which are the main cause of death in school-age children. “Announced last year, the agreement represents the first global corporate contribution to UNICEF's programmes for the prevention of child injuries from accidents and underscores the commitment of Abertis to road safety", said Loughney.

Meanwhile, Jorge Veci, Director of Operations at Metropistas, presented the company's Strategic Road Safety Plan. "The aim of the plan is to foster a road safety culture within and outside the company and to manage infrastructure safely and efficiently by studying and analysing accidents and raising awareness of the importance of road safety among all the company's stakeholders”, he stated.

Veci presented statistics which demonstrate the correlation between the investment carried out by metropistas since 2012 to improve the PR-22 and PR-5 toll roads - such as the installation of LED lights, the repair of roads and structures and the installation of more kilometres of safety barriers - and the marked decline in accidents on these motorways. More specifically, metropistas invested $135 million in improving the infrastructure of both toll roads, with the number of accidents falling by almost a third in the 2012 -2017 period.

The Forum was also attended by Darelis López Rosario, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Traffic Safety Commission; Grace M. Díaz-Estrada, the representative in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the Federal Highway Administration; Didier Valdés, Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez; Juan Carlos Rivera, of the Highways Authority; Lynette Alicea, of the CSA Group, Colonel Jorge Hernández Peña, of the Puerto Rico Police Force, and Efraín A. García-Rodríguez, interim Executive Director of the Automobile Accident Compensation Administration. 

The International Road Safety Forum staged today in San Juan follows the events held by Abertis in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France and Spain, with further editions planned in other countries where the Abertis Group operates.

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