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New tool to support countries in designing road safety plans that will save lives

How can countries best harness data to reduce road casualties, helping to meet the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on improving road safety?


UNECE, with the support of International Road Transport Union (IRU), is developing a new tool to help governments design effective road safety plans that will save lives.


Road safety is among the most pressing health emergencies around the world today. As part of its global efforts to improve road safety, UNECE is developing the “Safe Future Inland Transport Systems (SafeFITS)” model to support knowledge-based decision making in transport policy. The primary objective of SafeFITS is to assist governments and decision makers to develop the most appropriate road safety policies and measures to reduce road casualties.


The SafeFITS tool is built around a statistical model based on historical road safety data and the relations between different road safety indicators. SafeFITS will enable governments to identify the most appropriate road safety measures and policies to save even more lives.


While the issue of road safety is a global one, the challenges of each country are unique. One country may face infrastructure-based problems, while others may have inadequate legal structures in place or experience enforcement challenges.  This is why SafeFITS is designed to adapt to each country’s specific profile and characteristics.  


With SafeFITS, governments input relevant country-level data and provide details on possible road safety policies and measures, which is then used to generate information on the results of different scenarios, providing detailed numbers on potential lives saved.


SafeFITS, which is entering its final phase of development, was presented to the Global Forum for Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) as part of its Seventy-fifth session this week, in order to showcase current developments and obtain feedback from national representatives.


Apart from web-application finalization, the final phase of SafeFITS development includes pilot tests in Albania and Georgia, as part of the UNDA-funded project “Strengthening the national road safety management capacities of selected developing countries and countries with economies in transition”. 


To find out more about UNECE’s work to improve road safety, please visit: http://www.unece.org/mc/trans/theme_road_safety.html

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