The United Nations (UN) has launched #SaveKidsLives, a global campaign to generate action to make streets safe for children.

According to UN World Health Organization (WHO), everyday around 500 children die from road traffic crashes and thousands are injured.

Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death across the world for people aged between 15 and 17 years, with boys accounting for nearly twice as many road traffic deaths as girls.

"We should plan our transportation system in such a way that children can be safe when they go to school, where they go to the park, when they go visit a friend."

WHO department for violence and injury prevention director Dr Etienne Krug said in an interview with UN Radio: "It’s a manmade disaster where we are killing our young children on the roads by not providing them with safe places to play, safe places to walk or cycle to school."

The third UN Global Road Safety Week has already been initiated and will run through 10 May and it will feature hundreds of events to highlight WHO’s package of ten key strategies for keeping children safe on the road.

The ‘Children and road safety’ campaign features hundreds of events to highlight WHO’s strategies and is part of a larger Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 plan of action to save five million lives worldwide.

Dr Krug noted: "We should plan our transportation system in such a way that children can be safe when they go to school, where they go to the park, when they go visit a friend."

The campaign will see building road safety management capacity, improving the safety of road infrastructure and broader transport networks, producing safer vehicles, improving the safety of road users through enacting and enforcing legislation around key risks.