International Transport Forum releases new road safety report

A new International Transport Forum report has called for a more standardised approach for estimating the benefits of road safety initiatives.

According to the report, Sharing Road Safety, the lack of quantifiable evidence about the effects of countermeasures on road crashes, such as roadway signage, pedestrian crossing treatments, and roadway geometric features, is a key obstacle to the advancement of many critical, life-saving road safety initiatives.

“We have to stop the global increase in road fatalities,” said José Viegas, Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum. “The reduction in fatalities already achieved in some countries assures us that it is possible to reduce road deaths, and even then the efforts must continue. For those countries with increasing fatalities, the trend must be reversed.”

Almost 1.3 million people die in road crashes every year, and between 20 and 50 million are injured. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people between 15 and 29 years of age. Road crashes cost countries between 1 and 3 percent of their GDP.

“We are currently at a turning point, with the prospect of rapid advances and major cost savings through the transfer of results internationally,” stated Patrick Hasson, Chairman of the Working Group that compiled the report.

The key message of the document is that governments can more effectively improve road safety by making better use of indicators that reliably quantify the reduction of crashes due to interventions in the road-traffic system. Through the use of indicators that provide measures on how interventions affect the number and gravity of road crashes, governments can reduce the risk of taking decisions that have little or no impact on improving road safety.