联合国禁止其工作人员开车时打手机

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.

联合国秘书长潘基文于本周三宣布，联合国将严禁该机构所有工作人员在驾驶公车时发手机短信，对遏制这一行为给予支持。据信，开车时发短信每年致使数千人丧生。

潘基文在当天联合国的一次活动上宣布了该禁令，美国和俄罗斯在该活动上启动了一项名为“共同抵御分心驾驶”的全球行动。

潘基文说，联合国已发布一项旨在改善道路安全的“行政指令”，其中包括禁止在开车时发短信。据联合国官员介绍，联合国的法律事务部门目前正在学习这一指令，现在还不能说被抓到在开车时用手机或其它手提设备发短信将受到怎样的处罚。

这一指令面向联合国分布在世界各地的所有7万多名工作人员。

潘基文说：“我希望全世界的人都能意识到这一点：开车时发短信是要付出生命代价的。”

美国驻联合国特使苏珊．赖斯和交通署秘书雷．拉胡德说，2008年，仅美国就有近6千人在“分心驾驶”导致的交通事故中丧生，另有超过50万人在此类事故中受伤。

目前全球约有32个国家已通过禁止在开车时使用手机和其它手提设备的法案。

俄罗斯驻联合国特使维塔利．丘尔金说，旨在解决分心驾驶这一普遍问题的措施正被纳入由世界卫生组织和联合国其它机构编撰的一项道路安全十年（2011年至2020年）行动计划。