Safer roads
Enhancing international road safety policymaking to reduce crashes and serious injury
During 2019, according to the European Transport Safety Council, 51 people per million inhabitants died in road traffic crashes across the EU.
However, putting Europe-wide road safety policies in place has long been hampered by the incompatibility of EU Member States’ crash data – and how it is recorded – which has made aggregated crash estimates unreliable and safety planning challenging.
Our research (2004-19) has underpinned the development of new resources that enable road safety policymakers to access reliable, consistent safety data to support their decisions.
Our impact
Award-winning research
- Prince Michael International Road Safety Award 2019 (SafetyCube)
- Prince Michael International Road Safety Award 2019 (SaferAfrica)
- Prince Michael International Road Safety Award 2013 (ERSO)
Our new EU-wide initiatives
- MAIS 3+ adopted in 2015
- The European Road Safety Observatory was established in 2009
- The Road Safety Decision Support System was established in 2018
- The African Road Safety Observatory was established in 2019
The research
To achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal to reduce traffic casualties, road safety policymakers worldwide need consistent, reliable and detailed data – something not always available to them.
Addressing this problem, we have led a 15-year EU-wide partnership – comprising several major projects including SafetyNet, DaCoTa and SafetyCube – which has resulted in several new resources to enhance data analysis.
Our novel procedure, CADAS, adopted in 2008 will gradually align the 28 sets of EU crash data, while our Road Safety Decision Support System will address the need amongst policymakers for specific information about the magnitude of road safety risks and the effectiveness of countermeasures to reduce them.
Meanwhile, the new classification of Maximum AIS 3+ injury severity, according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), has helped policymakers to overcome the major obstacle of classifying and enumerating non-fatally injured casualties – and underpins a target of a 50% reduction in serious injuries by 2030.
More recently, we have applied our expertise within SaferAfrica – examining the road safety challenges in African countries.
Supported and adopted by key international stakeholders – including the EC, OECD, World Bank and WHO – our research is having a direct and positive impact on road safety policies worldwide.
I am confident the results of the SafetyCube project will present an excellent opportunity to inspire a strong renewed commitment for safer roads for all.
Research funder
- European Commission
Development partners
Our partners include
- National Technical University of Athens
- VIAS Institue
- SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV)
- Austrian Road Safety Board (KfV)
- French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR)
- SAFER Vehicles and Traffic Safety Centre (Chalmers)
- Institute of Transport Economics (TOI)
- European Union Road Federation (ERF)
- Centre for Transport and Logistics, University of Rome (CTL)
- Agency for Public Health Barcelona (ASPB)
- Medical University of Hannover (MHH)
- Slovenian Traffic Safety Agency (AVP)
- Laboratory of Accidentology, Biomachanics and Human Behaviour (LAB)
