Vision Zero applied to road safety
We discovered another way to implement the principles contained in Vision Zero: reduction of traffic deaths and their consequences.
Since 1990, in Sweden, this strategy has been used, achieving notable results: deaths due to road accidents have been reduced by half. Many North American cities have since joined this campaign, implementing measures that have led to a significant reduction in road accidents. We see the example of Seattle or New York, where programs have been implemented with the objective of achieving zero deaths due to work accidents. For this, road safety programs, signs, speed reduction on certain streets, among others, have been implemented...
Vision Zero is not a slogan, it is not a headline, it is not a program.
It is fundamentally a new way of approaching road safety.
In this case, to be a Vision Zero city, certain requirements must be met, among which are:
- Create leadership committed to reducing accidents, cooperative and responsible
- Generate two-way communication between community leaders and urban transportation unions, police and community members
- Perform data studies to obtain results and trends to evaluate risks
- Prioritize equality and commitment of the population
- Decrease speed to safe levels
- Propose dates for the objectives you want to achieve
To find all the data and more information about this network of cities that apply the Vision Zero philosophy, you can access the attached link.
In a closer scenario, the European Community proposed in 2018 the third package of measures in favor of road safety for the period 2021-2030, with which up to 10,500 lives could be saved on European roads, reducing accidents by half. fatal accidents on European roads by 2030, the most ambitious goal is to achieve zero fatal accidents by 2050.
At the level of the government of Spain, the zero objective developed is the one that was formulated through the Strategic Road Safety Plan 2011-2020, in addition to being included in the Mission, Vision and Values of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) as a fundamental part of your corporate policy.
Recently the DGT presented the accident rate data that occurred throughout 2018, 1,072 fatal accidents on interurban roads, in which 1,180 people have died. In this appearance, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stressed that the increase in the number of fatal accidents does not depend on the increase in trips, nor in the driver census, nor in the vehicle fleet:
The accident rate depends on the people who get behind the wheel, education, the safety measures adopted and the surveillance and control measures for compliance with the regulations. All road safety regulations have to take into account two aspects: the fallibility of human beings, that is, we all have faults, and the vulnerability of human beings. (F.Grande-Marlaska).
concluded the Minister, in line with the philosophy that was born in Sweden regarding Vision Zero or Safe System.
Fraternidad-Muprespa in its desire to innovate and help its associates in improving their accident rate, joins this effort to transpose this philosophy, already consolidated years ago in the cities of the United States and initiated in Sweden, to the preventive universe, we also use the latest technology available to carry out our Road Safety Workshops with virtual reality immersive.
