Abstract
The apparent strange development in traffic safety with a maximum decrease in the first halve of the nineteen seventies and thereafter an increase in safety can be easily understood as the resultant of two very regular trends of mobility and risk. The decrease of risk has probably different causes. Vehicles and infrastructure have become safer, but the road user and traffic regulations have also contributed to the decrease in risk. There were more fatalities at first, thereafter less, but now we must reach more less : 25% less in the year 2000.