In order to achieve safer road traffic it seems necessary to engage not only the authorities directly concerned and the road users but also companies and organizations more or less concerned. This has been the philosophy in traffic safety work in Sweden for more than 50 years - a philosophy with which the motor third-party insurance companies agree. Historically this was shown when they participated in the foundation of the National Road Safety Organization, NTF, in 1935. Ever since they have contributed with an annual grant to NTF. Motor insurance companies have three motives for participating in traffic safety work. Their role in society is accompanied by a general responsibility to pursue traffic safety in a strong manner. Their position as insurers means that they have to consider the demands of their clients as regards measures keeping the insurance premium as low as possible and to use the special experience their work can add to traffic safety work. Finally, traffic safety work is important to business economics. In the light of these facts the motor insurance companies in Sweden have taken an active hand in different ways in traffic safety work. This work is carried out partly by each company individually, partly by all of them together. The companies themselves have mainly worked within three areas, (1) technical issues, e.g. the construction of the car, the interior safety of cars and repair work; (2) initiative and support for research with among other things use of data from the files of insurance claims and (3) safety information of different kinds. The common activities of the insurance industry have been performed or canalized by the Insurance Road Safety Committee, TRK, since 1973. TRK is active in the form of traffic safety measures, research and development and a broad area of operational contacts.
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