Road safety management systems have evolved in high-income countries over the last fifty years and the challenge for all countries will be to benefi t from the lessons learned, to avoid perpetuating the unnecessary and unacceptably high level of deaths and injuries experienced on the world’s roads. This will require low and middle-income countries to shift rapidly and decisively to what has been termed the Safe System approach which aims to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries, rather than chart a fatalistic pathway that accepts these impacts as an inevitable price of economic progress. The challenge for high-income countries will be to continue to innovate on the basis of sound safety principles and go beyond what is currently known to be effective, to achieve even higher levels of safety performance.
The findings of the World Report culminated in six overarching recommendations that set out the strategic initiatives necessary to improve country road safety performance. Implementing these recommendations will require capacity building at the global, regional and country levels to create the resources and tools necessary to target initiatives on a scale capable of reducing significantly and sustainably the huge economic and social losses arising from road deaths and injuries.
The guidelines presented in this report provide a pragmatic approach designed to overcome institutional capacity barriers and achieve sustainable results.