Management Systems For Road Safety - National Programs

National Programs

A prerequisite for progress in this area is to introduce national programs with clear and quantifiable objectives, some examples are:

• Chile 0% growth in fatalities, (down from historical 5-7% annual growth), (CONASET, 1993)
• EU, 40% reduction in fatalities for 2010
• Denmark 40% reduction for 2000
• Finland 65% reduction for 2005
• United Kingdom 33% reduction for 2000
• USA No more than 1.0 fatality for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by 2008

Sweden has developed a new concept to improve road safety called "Vision Zero". Vision Zero is conceived from the ethical base that it can never be acceptable that people are killed or seriously injured when moving within the road transport system. It centres around an explicit goal, and develops into a highly pragmatic and scientifically based strategy which challenges the traditional approach to road safety.

Vision Zero: strategic principles

• The traffic system has to adapt to take better account of the needs, mistakes and vulnerabilities of road users.
• The level of violence that the human body can tolerate without being killed or seriously injured forms the basic parameter in the design of the road transport system.
• Vehicle speed is the most important regulating factor for a safe road traffic. It should be determined by the technical standard of both roads and vehicle so as not to exceed the level of violence that the human body can tolerate.

While the concept envisages responsibility for safety amongst the designers and users of the system, the designer has the final responsibility for "fail-safe" measures.

Vision Zero: system designer has primary responsibility

• System designers are responsible for the design, operation and the use of the road transport system and are thereby responsible for the level of safety within the entire system.
• Road users are responsible for following the rules for using the road transport system set by the system designers.
• If the users fail to comply with these rules due to a lack of knowledge, acceptance or ability, the system designers are required to take the necessary further steps to counteract people being killed or injured.