Skip to main content

Improving road safety worldwide

The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) says that road safety requires a major transformation to halve road fatalities by 2020. Data shows that road injuries present a significant public health concern worldwide. Road crashes are one of the top 10 causes of death globally. But despite roads in the EU becoming safer each year, the reduction of road fatalities since 2010 has reached a plateau. In 2018, there were 25,100 reported road fatalities across the 28 EU member states. The average road fatality
June 27, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) says that road safety requires a major transformation to halve road fatalities by 2020. Data shows that road injuries present a significant public health concern worldwide. Road crashes are one of the top 10 causes of death globally. But despite roads in the EU becoming safer each year, the reduction of road fatalities since 2010 has reached a plateau.

In 2018, there were 25,100 reported road fatalities across the 28 EU member states. The average road fatality rate in 2018 was 49/1 million inhabitants, which constitutes a 1% decrease from 2017.

It is apparent that there is a lot of work to do if the EU is to reach its target of reducing road fatalities and serious injury by 50% before 2020, according to TRL.

A number of key factors in boosting safety have been identified by TRL, which provides leading research into road safety and is committed to developing safe transport systems for the future.

According to TRL, it is important to look at road safety as a major public health issue. And with traffic volumes increasing year-on-year, driver behaviours such as speeding and mobile phone use are key contributors to road injury. In addition, TRL says that it is vital for the transport sector to innovate new technologies that enable safer transport and shift gears in approaches to enforcement and education.

Related Content

  • Europe’s green roads future
    June 17, 2020
    The European Commission’s Green Deal recognises that sustainable road infrastructure will keep Europe’s highways at the core of the continent's economy
  • Vysionics helps Scottish watchdog A9 Safety Group win CIHT award
    September 16, 2015
    An installation of SPECS3 average speed cameras from Vysionics has helped a Scottish road safety watchdog win an award The A9 Safety Group, which monitors traffic, accidents and driving habits and conditions along the A9 trunk road, picked up the John Smart Road Safety Award from the CIHT - Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. The CIHT is concerned with planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of land-based transport systems and infrastructure. A9 Safety won the award
  • Vietnam’s road safey shows continued improvement
    August 1, 2017
    Road safety in Vietnam is showing continued signs of improvement, a major step forward in Asia where road crashes are a serious problem. Across most of Asia, road deaths are increasing as vehicle ownership grows but Vietnam is bucking the trend and lowering the annual death toll. The latest data from Vietnam’s National Committee for Traffic Safety reveals that traffic deaths, crashes and injuries were all reduce in the period from January to July 2017.
  • Cannabis users are at risk from DUI
    February 16, 2022
    Cannabis users who drive are at serious risk from DUI.