Mayor Bloomberg Pledges $125-Million to Reduce Auto Fatalities

Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, has pledged $125-million for an international program aimed at reducing and preventing deaths and injuries from automobile crashes. The five-year program will benefit 10 low- and middle-income countries with large numbers of deaths resulting from traffic crashes.

The six organizations that will coordinate the program with the countries’ government agencies are the Association for Safe International Road Travel, Global Road Safety Partnership, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, World Health Organization, and World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport.

None of the money will be directed to U.S. road-safety programs. The commitment follows a $9-million donation Mr. Bloomberg made in 2007 to support a pilot program on road safety in Mexico and Vietnam.

“Based on our pilot projects, I believe we can extend our reach to many more people in additional countries,” said Mr. Bloomberg, in a news release.

The countries that will benefit from the program are still being decided but will be scattered throughout Africa, Latin America, Southeastern Asia, the Near East, and elsewhere.

This commitment follows another $125-million pledge Mr. Bloomberg made in 2006 to fight tobacco use worldwide. As with this most recent pledge, the World Health Organization and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health were among the organizations that coordinated the smoking-cessation program.

Mr. Bloomberg has given money to a wide array of causes over the years and has landed on The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the most-generous donors for each of the past five years. Last year, he ranked No. 9 on the list for giving away a total of $235-million to charity in 2008.