Skip to main content

ITF zero road deaths study wins International Road Safety Award

A new report, Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift in Road Safety, setting out a new approach to road safety has won the 2017 Special Award of the prestigious Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Awards. The study by a group of 30 international road safety experts from 24 countries, led by the International Transport Forum at the OECD, reviews the experiences of countries that have made it their long-term objective to eliminate fatal road crashes. Originating i
December 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A new report, Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift in Road Safety, setting out a new approach to road safety has won the 2017 Special Award of the prestigious Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Awards.

The study by a group of 30 international road safety experts from 24 countries, led by the International Transport Forum at the OECD, reviews the experiences of countries that have made it their long-term objective to eliminate fatal road crashes.

Originating in Sweden, the report indicates that 88 European cities with a population above 100,000 have had no road fatalities over the course of a whole year. The biggest among them are Nottingham in the UK, Aachen, Germany and Espoo, Finland.

Sixteen European towns, nine in the United Kingdom, six in Germany and one in Norway, experienced no road deaths for five years running. In Sweden, not a single child died as result of a bicycle crash in Sweden in 2008.

According to the World Health Organisation, 1.25 million people are killed by traffic every year.  Road crashes are the leading cause of death worldwide for young people aged 15 to 29. Traffic is the ninth leading cause of death overall, killing more people than malaria, while 90 per cent of road deaths occur in low-income countries, where rapid motorisation drives up fatalities. In many developed countries, the progress made over the past decades has stalled.

The ITF says new thinking is required if the target set by the international community of halving road deaths by 2020 is to be met

The report offers guidance for leaders that want to drastically reduce the road deaths in their communities and sets out how a ‘safe system’ approach to road safety can underpin this goal.

Related Content

  • Self-driving vehicles ‘may not improve road safety’
    January 28, 2015
    Self-driving vehicles are expected to improve road safety, improve the mobility of those who currently cannot use conventional vehicles and reduce emissions. However, a new report by researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) reviews some of the safety aspects attributed to autonomous vehicles and indicates that safety is likely to be an issue as long as self-driving cars share the road with conventional vehicles. Report authors Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoe
  • Pan European 24-hour speed enforcement marathon launches
    April 16, 2015
    European Traffic Police Network, TISPOL, has released details of the first pan European 24-hour speed enforcement marathon. In total, 22 countries are taking part in the marathon, starting today, Thursday 16 April at 0600 and continuing to 0600 on Friday 17 April. In the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the concept was conceived, members of the public have once again been invited to vote on the locations where they would like speed enforcement measures to take place. TISPOL pre
  • Visible enforcement makes roads safer: study
    June 14, 2022
    US research shows that high visibility is factor in reducing dangerous driving behaviours
  • Put ‘people, not cars' first in transport systems, says UN Environment chief
    October 21, 2016
    Lack of investment in safe walking and cycling infrastructure not only contributes to the deaths of millions of people in traffic accidents on unsafe roads and poorly designed roadways, but also overlooks a great opportunity to boost the fight against climate change, according to a new UN Environment report. In Global Outlook on Walking and Cycling, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) claims that greater investment in such infrastructure could help save millions of lives and reduce emissions of global w