The road to safety

1 October 2006

A new  report is the result of two years of work by a group of expert researchers in the field of traffic safety from many OECD and ECMT Countries.

The purpose of this report is to identify the key elements of young driver risk, the factors behind it, and countermeasures that address it.  The report provides concrete policy advice that will assist governments and other actors in taking steps to reduce young driver risk and the associated human and economic costs.

Traffic crashes are the single greatest killer of those aged 15-24 in OECD, and many ECMT countries.  In the OECD alone about 25 000 people in this age group die in crashes every year, including over 8 500 killed young drivers.  In many countries, about 20% to 30% of total fatal crashes involve a young driver.  For every 10 young drivers killed, more than 13 other people likely also die in the same crashes.  Thus, young drivers pose a greater risk than other drivers to themselves, their passengers and other road users.  This problem imposes substantial costs on individuals, families and societies, and addressing it will be essential to any initiative to reduce the overall costs of traffic safety risk.

Some countries have implemented a number of additional measures to more clearly address the high risks faced by young drivers.  The report reviews the measures available and their likely effectiveness and highlights the need for further action.

For more information regarding the Centre's project on young drivers, please see here.

For more information regarding the Joint OECD/ECMT Transport Research Centre, including its full programme of research activities and other recent publications, please consult www.cemt.org/JTRC/index.htm