From the systems approach, road transport is the least error tolerant man-machine environment causing an extreme number of deaths and injuries. Simple mistakes by individuals can cause a fatality or other severe health losses. During recent time, future road safety goals have been formulated, to encourage effective safety measures. During 1995, a more final goal has been discussed where no fatalities and other serious health losses are accepted in the road traffic, that is, zero casualties. The zero goal is not just a political or ethical goal, it is also a way to stress the need for a new approach to what is desired from different fields in the road transport system in order to radically increase the safety level. In this paper, an approach to the zero goal is presented, built on human biomechanical tolerances. The paper outlines necessary steps to be taken in research and implementation. The paper also, step by step, describes a process that defines questions to be raised and answered. It is stated, that the biomechanical tolerance is the most important limiting parameter in the zero vision. (A)
Abstract