̨ÍåÂãÁÄÖ±²¥

Dev, Meera, and Neel Naran

A DMU Lecturer has delivered a passionate keynote speech at the World Health Organization’s conference on international road safety.

Meera Naran MBE, a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy at ̨ÍåÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ Leicester (DMU), this week addressed the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech, Morocco.

Meera has dedicated her life to campaigning for road safety following the death of her eight-year-old son, Dev, who died in a smart motorway collision in May 2018.

In her speech, Meera told the conference the harrowing story of Dev’s death and its terrible impact on her family. However, she was clear that, while the emotion of her story should help motivate the international delegates, they needed to focus on action and not on emotion.

She told the conference: “Today we must pledge our commitment to design targeted and strategic, evidenced- based policy frameworks and legislation based on the safe systems approach, learning not just from various modes of transport, like aviation, rail and sea.  But also, from other sectors such as health too, moving away from our siloes, and more towards a collaborative and cohesive thinking.”

Organised by WHO and the King of Morocco, the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference brought together leaders and experts to accelerate actions and build on the progress made in previous conferences towards reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of halving the number of deaths in all countries of the world by 2030. DMU was recently appointed as chair of the global Academic Impact hub for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, sustainable cities and communities, which includes targets for road safety."

Meera said: “When I was young, my dream job was to be a lecturer at university, I never imagined that my goal would ultimately turn into a mission. A mission to save lives. With the support of the University, I have been able to focus on the public health issue of road deaths, which is leading cause of death among children and young people aged 5-29 across the world. If that isn’t worth fighting for, I’m not sure what is.”

Through her campaigning she has successfully influenced the implementation of 18 national policy changes and a commitment to improve road safety secured with a funding of over £900 million.

Meera, who received an MBE in 2021 for services to road safety, also works as an independent advisor and sits on several national working groups involving key stakeholders such as automotive industry partners, police, NHS, charities, ambulance and fire services. 

She is currently working on her PhD, a promise she made to Dev, which is focused on her work in knowledge exchange.

In October 2024, Meera also lost her older son, Neel aged 16, to a life limiting condition, refractory epilepsy. One of the key areas she continues to campaign for is data linkage between transport and health, and hopes this will in turn support improved NHS data sharing between primary, secondary and social care.