Worldwide, over 1.2 million people are killed in traffic every year and another 20 to 50 million are seriously injured. Road traffic injuries are estimated to be the eighth leading cause of death globally. If no action is taken, road traffic injuries will be the fifth leading cause of death in 2030. It was within this framework that the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) commissioned SWOV to perform a study to identify successful strategies to bring and keep road safety on the political agenda’s throughout the world, and to identify promising routes to further improvements. The present report focuses on the role of the international road safety community, including the FIA. During the last decade a remarkable number of initiatives have been taken or have been intensified. However, there are no indications that the projected increase (if no action is taken) to 1.9 million people killed in road crashes in 2020 has been reversed. The current report analyses and assesses several international developments and related documents aiming to improve road safety globally, UN Resolution 64/255 in particular. Based on this, the report presents some considerations and makes recommendations for further progress at the international level, and for further strengthening of the large number of relevant international organizations and international initiatives. Among other things, it has been concluded that road safety has to be put higher on the political agenda, both nationally and internationally, and needs to receive more funding to do justice to the size of the problem. The UN resolutions call for further strengthening of international cooperation and the concept of shared responsibility is crucial here. However, this concept has not yet been sufficiently elaborated. It is recommended that the UN, and more specifically the WHO in its coordinating role, together with all important players in the field develop a clear view of how the international community can contribute to improve global road safety, starting from a shared responsibility concept. Furthermore, a ten-point action plan is proposed, which involves: Bridging the implementation gap; Including road safety as a sustainable development goal; Improving road safety data quality; Monitoring progress and evaluating interventions; Gaining support to bridge the funding gap; Ensuring massive capacity building in low and middle income countries; Building a knowledge base in a ‘clearing house’; Carrying out national policy reviews; Strengthening awareness raising and advocacy efforts. The FIA is considered to be in a position to develop itself into a major player in the field of global road safety. The FIA is recommended to clarify, both for itself and for the international road safety community, which role it wishes to play, to formulate its strategic goals for road safety and to indicate which contributions it is willing and able to make for the ten-point action plan to be effective.
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