In January 2002, the Austrian government introduced an extensive road safety programme that establishes the following target: to halve the number of deaths by the year 2010. This brochure presents the main features of the road safety programme and a comprehensive list of measures some of which are already being carried out as part of a framework of initial measures (known as the "start package"). This programme will be Austria's first structured approach to traffic safety, and gives an overall overview and introduction to the possible steps necessary for reducing accidents. The programme has been created in co-operation with the Austrian Road Safety Board (Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit [KfV]). In this safety programme, four basic fields of action come into focus: human behaviour, infrastructure, vehicles, and transport policy and legal framework. Altogether, there are 26 priority areas and over a hundred concrete measures that are at the heart of the programme. The premise that underlies the programme is: (1) Every death and serious injury resulting from traffic accidents is one too many; (2) The effective safety work in the rail and aviation sectors should serve as a model for road transport; and (3) a healthy economy has, on pure economic grounds alone, to reduce accident costs.
Samenvatting