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

  • Road accident database vital for road safety
    April 12, 2012
    In the last of our profiles of laureates of the inaugural Innovation Award for Road Transport in Developing Countries (InARoaD), we meet the winner of the Road Safety category, and third prize overall A vital prerequisite for achieving safer roads is thorough assessment of prevailing traffic situations and identification of associated factors. In this respect, the availability of a comprehensive road accident database is crucial for understanding the pattern of accident causation. Conscious of the ne
  • India's road safety management innovations
    February 27, 2012
    Rohit Baluja is a man with a mission, and that is to help reduce the grim accident toll on India's roads, the worst in the world. Baluja, a shoemaker by trade, has been studying for a PhD in civil engineering, and this has involved regular trips to Birmingham, UK, to complete his doctorate. All this seems far removed from 18 years ago when in December 1991, using much of his own money, he founded the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), the only organisation in India that conducts accident investiga
  • Safer vehicles to cut crashes in Brazil
    November 16, 2015
    Brazil’s road death rate could be reduced with safer vehicles. This has been highlighted by a new research report from the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The report has revealed that 34,000 Brazilian lives could be saved and 350,000 serious injuries prevented by 2030, if UN vehicle safety regulations were adopted and car manufacturers sought to achieve higher ratings in the Latin NCAP crash test programme.
  • Brunei sees increased road deaths
    January 4, 2016
    Road crashes in Brunei caused more deaths in 2015 compared with 2014. The data from Brunei's Fire and Rescue Department shows that from January to November 2015, there were 15 road deaths compared with 10 fatalities from road crashes in 2014. In the period under review, the department obtained 76 calls to assist in lifting drivers and passengers trapped in ruined vehicles as opposed to 92 calls obtained in the preceding year. Serious injuries, however, dropped year-on-year from 92 to 65 in the 11 reporting