Over many years, countries with good road safety performance have reduced their road safety fatalities and injuries from initially high levels through the use of legislation, education and enforcement, as well as improvements to vehicle safety and the safety of the road infrastructure. However, the current levels of road fatalities and injuries in OECD/ECMT member countries are still too high and clearly not acceptable. Road casualties are a major public health problem and the costs of road crashes on average are equivalent to around 2 % of GDP. National targets for road safety (e.g. in terms of reduction in fatalities and serious injuries) raise the profile of road safety and focus the national efforts to achieve further reductions. This document outlines the key findings of the Joint OECD/ECMT Transport Research Centre.s (JTRC) current research project on Achieving Ambitious Road Safety Targets. (Author/publisher)
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