Traffic safety comparison of some post-socialist and high-developed countries.

The object of this paper is to compare and analyse the road safety and traffic behaviour of road users in selected countries- Estonia (EST), Finland (FIN), Czech Republic (CZE), Hungary (HUN), United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (RUS) during the last period. The results presented indicate remarkable differences between post-socialist and high-developed countries in road safety situation, motorization level and living standard (GDP per capita) and relative fuel price. The progress and experience of the high-developed countries could be set as an example for the post-socialist countries. The analyse shows that the differences will decrease parallel with harmonization between countries in motorization level, but it takes time. The main problems of road safety in post-socialist countries are: (1) Post-socialist countries must reduce the number of traffic fatalities and severe injuries. In the first stage the increase of using passive safety equipment in parallel with speed control (50 kph for urban streets) should be put on the first priority. The costs of these measures are minor; (2) Change of road users (especially pedestrians) attitudes towards the road safety should be developed; (3) Meaningful sanctions against some drivers (especially novice drivers) playing the main role in unsafe (speeding, drinking and driving, lack of skills) must be used; (4) Wrong attitudes of the society in general towards the road safety must be considered as a national health problem; and (5) USA's main problem seems to be drinking and driving plus the high number of slight road accidents and injured road users. From a comparison of the (vehicle based) fatality rates of the selected countries it is clear that the fatality rates in post-socialist countries are much higher than in the high-developed countries. The socio-economic data shows the development and car using conditions in post-socialist countries are much lower than in high-developed countries. The relationship between fatalities per 10 000 motor vehicles and motorization level is valid for all selected countries and rapid changes are difficult to forecast. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD no 207828. The reprints are also available at the web - http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart1.pdf; http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart2.pdf and http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart3.pdf.