“Zero Tolerance” for Unsafe Road Design

22 October 2008

The world is moving one step closer to cutting the annual global road death toll of 1.2 million by recognising the crucial role of road design, according to John Dawson, chairman of the UK’s Campaign for Safe Road Design.

A joint initiative from the Transport Research Centre of the influential OECD and the International Transport Forum will move the importance of road design further up the international agenda by embracing the “Safe System” approach to transport design. This new approach is being successfully used particularly in the Netherlands, Sweden and some Australian states. It ensures that, in the event of a crash, impact energies remain below the threshold likely to produce either death or serious injury.

The report Towards zero: ambitious road safety targets and the safe system approach” was launched on 17 October

It is along the lines set out in Towards Zero that the RoadSafe supported Campaign for Safe Road Design will continue to push for change and road death reduction in the UK

The report is available at:

http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/safety/targets/08TargetsSummary.pdf

More about the Campaign for Safe Road Design.