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A report released by the World Health Organization last week is highlighting the impact of road crashes around the world, and in Potomac, local activists are helping lead the fight for global road safety.

According to the study, called the Global Status Report on Road Safety, about 1.3 million people die each year on the world's roads and between 20 and 50 million suffer injuries. About half of those killed are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, according to the report, which was based on a survey of 178 countries.

The report also found that few countries have sufficient comprehensive legislation targeted at road safety, and enforcement of road safety laws is often lacking. "The Global Status Report on Road Safety results clearly show that significantly more action is needed to make the world's roads safer," the report read.

For Potomac resident Rochelle Sobel, the cause for global road safety hits close to home.

Her son Aron Sobel was in his final year of medical school and volunteering abroad when he was killed, along with 22 other victims, in a bus crash in Turkey in 1995. He was 25.

After her son's death, Sobel, a teacher at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, formed an organization that helps promote safety on roads around the world. The organization, known as the Association for Safe International Road Travel, or ASIRT, educates travelers about existing road conditions in various countries and advocates for countries across the globe to regulate and enforce safety interventions like seatbelts, child safety seats and helmets.

According to ASIRT, road crashes are the leading cause of death for people between ages 15 and 29.

Sobel's work has helped spotlight road safety throughout the county and the country. In part, she is inspired by her knowledge that different circumstances could have saved her son's life.

Sobel later discovered that the driver of Aron's bus was speeding around a dangerous curve on a narrow two-lane road in the wrong lane, Sobel said. There was no guardrail along the road, and the bus tumbled down an embankment. "By the time emergency crews came, it was too late to help," Sobel said.

Encouraging countries to invest in road safety, Sobel said, may help to safeguard future travelers.

At the report's launch in New York last week, a video of Sobel telling her story was shown. Her work is also spreading throughout the county. Recently, two North Potomac twin sisters who are students of Sobel's collected signed letters supporting road safety at their Bat Mitzvah.

Sara and Diana Bender-Bier, both 13, met with U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington, who co-chairs a congressional caucus on road safety, to deliver the letters and advocate for the cause.

Van Hollen also recently helped introduce House Concurrent Resolution 74, which sets goals to cut a predicted increase in global road deaths by 50 percent between 2010 and 2020. "We wanted Congressman Van Hollen to tell other congressmen about ASIRT and spread awareness," Diana Bender-Bier said.

For the girls, the issue hit close to home because of their teacher's story. But they also hoped to promote the cause among their friends, who will soon begin driving their own cars. "We just wanted to show him that all the young kids cared about this cause," Sara Bender-Bier said.

Sobel said that global road safety is an often under-reported problem. Through her work, she also hopes to inspire young people to get involved. "We feel like [young people] have become ambassadors of road safety," Sobel said. "We want them to take the lead in this."

To learn more about The Association for Safe International Road Travel, visit www.asirt.org.