Swedish Development in Road Safety

In spite of great progress in international traffic safety work, traffic accidents cause a large and increasing number of fatalities and severe injuries. Within the OECD region, about 125,000 people die every year. International studies rank road traffic accidents as the ninth most serious cause of death in the world in the year 1990. According to forecasts, the number of traffic accidents will increase to such an extent that by the year 2020 they will be the third most serious cause of death. Work on reducing the number of traffic accidents is being intensified all over the world. This is an important part of the inputs for a road traffic system that will be sustainable in the long term. For many years, traffic safety issues have occupied a prominent place in Swedish transport policy. Sweden can therefore show that the numbers of traffic fatalities and severe injuries are very low in an international comparison. Swedish traffic safety work is an integral part of transport policy. This paper will give an overview of Swedish traffic safety work. A number of important experiences, which may be of broader international interest, may be drawn from Swedish work to improve traffic safety.