SWOV is the national institute for road safety research in the Netherlands. All the research performed by SWOV, all the instruments SWOV develops and all advice given by SWOV have one common goal: improving road safety so as reduce the numbers of road deaths and injuries. The leading principles are the road safety chain and the knowledge requirements of stakeholders in the road safety area.
Sustainable Safety (1992) and Advacing Sustainable Safety (2005) have had positive results: the annual number of road deaths has dropped from more than 1250 in 1996 to 570 in 2013. In 2014, the number of fatalities remained stable, but in 2015 the number of road deaths increased to 621. Over the past decades there has not been any decline in serious road injuries, only a gradual increase.
To achieve a (renewed) decline in the number of road crash casualties requires a new strategic and operational system approach. In 2015 SWOV therefore started the development of DV3; in 2016 this process will be continued, in collaboration with several of SWOV's partners in the areas of traffic and road safety.