OECD calls for a road safety ‘paradigm shift’

On October 3 2016, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with the International Transport Forum (ITF) released a report, “Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift to a Safe System”. The report was the end result of work from more than 30 road safety experts from 24 different countries. The publication highlights the importance of both legislation and consumer efforts in order to increase vehicle safety.

The final report was released in Paris during a high-level road safety seminar and calls for governments to adopt a “paradigm shift”, using the SDGs as a springboard to change their policies on road safety.

10 key recommendations are listed:

  • Think safe roads, not safer roads;
  • Provide strong, sustained leadership for the paradigm shift to a Safe System;
  • Foster a sense of urgency to drive change;
  • Underpin aspirational goals with concrete operational targets;
  • Establish shared responsibility for road safety;
  • Apply a results-focused way of working among road safety stakeholders;
  • Leverage all parts of a Safe System for greater overall effect and so that if one part fails the other parts will still prevent serious harm;
  • Use Safe System to make city traffic safe for vulnerable road users;
  • Build Safe System capacity in low and middle-income countries to improve road safety in rapidly motorizing parts of the world;
  • Support data collection, analysis and research on road traffic as a Safe System;

You can find the full report HERE.