In 1990-1994, a traffic safety campaign called "Heja Halland" was carried out in the county of Halland. The objective was to reduce the number of accidents by 30% during a period of five years. The basic idea was to engage, without lecturing or using authority, all the inhabitants of Halland in the traffic safety work. Communication with the inhabitants was mainly carried out by distributing free copies of the paper "Heja Halland" and through close cooperation with local radio stations. In December 1993, the VTI was commissioned to document and evaluate the campaign. The evaluation contains three parts: (1) three studies with behavioural approaches; (2) a description of the development in the number of injured and killed; and (3) an analysis of the development based on injury accidents. For the two latter cases, the source used consisted of the official statistics of the SCB (Statistics Sweden) based on accidents reported to the police. The original objectives of the campaign concerning reduction of accidents have not been achieved. But there is an obvious reduction in fatalities and severe injury accidents. No definite conclusion can be drawn concerning the reasons for the reduction or on ways of generalising the results. One major reason is the fact that when the project was initiated, the conditions were poor concerning the most serious accidents. (A)
Abstract