Traffic safety on two continents : a public-health perspective.

Traffic safety has been evaluated using a variety of measures, including fatality rates per kilometer driven, per licensed driver, per registered vehicle, and per population. In this presentation it is argued that while each of these measures has a role to play, from the viewpoint of public health the appropriate measure is the rate per population. The reason for this argument is that it is the only measure that allows us to compare the death roll from road transportation with that from other leading causes of death, and thereby assist us in setting priorities more appropriately for research and countermeasure implementation. As an illustration of the utility of using rates per population, this study analyzed the data from 32 European countries and the United States, to provide information about the comparative safety levels from the public-health perspective. In addition to the fatality rates from all accidents, analyses were also performed on fatality rates for single-vehicle multiple-vehicle, and pedestrian accidents. Three analyses were performed. The first analysis compared traffic-fatality rates with fatality rates from other causes of death. The results indicate, for example, that in the United Kingdom the death rate per population from traffic accidents is one-thirtieth of the rate from heart disease (the main cause of death), but in Portugal it is approximately one third of that rate. The second analysis contrasted the traffic-fatality rates per population in different countries, providing information about the relative standing in relation to what has already been accomplished in traffic safety in other countries. The third analysis contrasted percentages of fatalities from different types of traffic accidents within individual countries, providing information for local priorities. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to cross-national differences in priorities for research and countermeasure implementation. (A) (This paper is not included in the conference proceedings).