World

Most countries have established national strategies with a mortality reduction target, priority indicators and action plans ranging from 4 to 12 years.

In South Africa, the "Safely Home" programme has reduced the number of road deaths by 29 % in three years by improving pedestrian protection infrastructure, radar checks and the use of breath tests. In Mexico, the road safety strategy is seen as a public health issue: it plans to collect injury data from accident victims, standardize pre-hospital care and encourage behaviour towards safe driving. In Germany, the 2011-2020 road safety programme includes an entire set of measures specific to automotive engineering, developed in conjunction with manufacturers. In Switzerland, the "Via secura" programme adopted in 2012 focuses on measures to improve the application of standards, strengthen prevention and evaluation, so that "only well-trained and capable motorists can drive in safe cars and on mild roads".

Many countries promote the concept of "Safe system", with the objective of creating a complete and safe transport system that allows human error and avoids serious accidents.

According to WHO, only 47 countries meet the two criteria identified as best practices for speed management in urban areas: the 50 km/h limit and the power of local authorities to reduce this limit.

In addition, the resolution of the European Parliament dated 6 October 2021 makes recommendations to achieve:

- the long-term strategic objective of getting closer to “zero deaths” and “zero serious injuries” on the roads of the Union by 2050 (“ Vision Zero”);

- and its medium-term objective of halving the number of deaths and serious injuries by 2030 compared to the base year  2019, in accordance with the Valletta declaration of 2017.
 

For alcohol, 84 countries, generally high-income countries, have national regulations setting a blood alcohol limit of 0.5 g/l or less. 34 countries in the world, including 21 in the European region, have also set a lower limit for young and inexperienced drivers at 0.2 g/l in the blood.

To raise awareness and combat risky behaviour (speed, drink-driving, failure to wear a motorcycle helmet, seatbelt and child restraint systems), national road safety policies must nevertheless take into account economic (traffic flow, condition of infrastructure) or cultural (social acceptability, driving pleasure, festive alcohol consumption) considerations. The reduction in the number of victims is also linked to the ability of each country to enforce the regulations in place.

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