Abstract
This paper presents three illustrative studies which aim at showing that naive causal explanations for accidents (i.e spontaneous explanations given for road accidents by laymen) as well as the perception people have of risks on the road, could throw some light on the knowledge about accident casuality as well as on its prevention. It is stressed that by taking into account the naive causal explanations for accidents given by ordinary people (drivers, pedestrians, policemen, road engineers, etc.), accidents countermeasures could be better understood and more easily accepted because they would integrate the cognitive functioning of those who are directly concerned by their execution.