German research showed that family of traffic victims suffer tremendous emotional pain and may even withdraw themselves from public life for more than ten years. In order to put an economic figure on the issue, it is useful to remember that road accidents cost approximately 1-3% of a country's annual Gross National Product (GNP). These are resources that no country can afford to lose, especially those with developing economies. It is estimated that developing countries currently lose in the region of 100 billionUS$ every year because of road accidents. This is almost twice as much asthe total development assistance they receive. In developing countries inparticular, these losses undoubtedly inhibit the economic and social development. Improving road safety is a necessity. This document outlines PIARC TC 3.1's perspective on infrastructure-related road safety issues. TC 3.1 work made it clear that improvements to the infrastructure can help savelives. Formal procedures such as road safety audits of road projects and safety inspections of roads in operations are extremely efficient and havebeen described in PIARC guidelines. Intelligent transport systems, be they in-car or infrastructure related, offer good opportunities for accident reduction as well, and should be investigated by road authorities in closecooperation with equipment and car manufacturers. PIARC guidelines help identify the most appropriate systems. Overall, road infrastructure and equipment design procedures should take human factors into account whenever possible, since all road users have their physiological and psychological limitations. PIARC guidelines make this easier. Accurate accident data is the basis for sound road safety policies, and PIARC guidelines help data collection and analysis strategies. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
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