Road Safety Seminar “Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift to a Safe System”

8 September 2016

Every year, 1.25 million people die in road traffic. Road crashes are the seventh most frequent cause of death in the world, killing more people than malaria or tuberculosis. Rapid motorisation is driving the death-and-serious-injury statistics further up in middle-income countries, while in many developed countries the success in reducing road deaths has stalled.

World leaders are increasingly focusing on the global road death epidemic. The United Nations have set an ambitious target in their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce the number of road traffic deaths and serious injuries by 50% to 2020 compared to 2010.

Halving road deaths in the coming years will require governments to fundamentally review their road safety policies. A group of pioneering countries have adopted “Vision Zero”, the bold ambition that no-one should be killed in a crash, to drive policy. They are underpinning it by transforming road traffic into a “Safe System” whose elements are designed and managed together to avoid crashes that cause serious harm.

A new report by the International Transport Forum at the OECD reviews the progress made by these countries and offers guidance for leaders who seek to drastically reduce road deaths in their communities. Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift to a Safe System will be released on 3rd October 2016.

On the occasion of the report launch, you are cordially invited to a one-day seminar on 3rd October 2016, 11-17 hours at the OECD Headquarters in Paris, that will allow an in depth presentation and discussion of this ground-breaking report. The seminar will discuss:

• The experiences of countries which have started their journey towards a Safe System, highlighting challenges and how they were addressed.
• The main principles of a Safe System and the changes in mind-set it requires.
• The role of leadership in driving change in road safety policy.
•  How a Safe System translates into road safety management practices and addresses typical fatal crashes.

For more information and to register for this event, please click here.