How can policy help save lives that would needlessly have been lost in road accidents? Is it by communicating the dangers to drivers, enforcing penalties on offenders, stigmatizing drunk-driving, improving public transport….or all of those measures in moderation?

Europe has been working on that issue for over a decade: it was in 2000 that the EU’s Road Safety Action Plan was launched, with the aim of halving road deaths over the course of the decade through a variety of measures. While the programme missed the target, it was close enough, managing a respectable cut of 44% from 54,302 in 2001 to around 30,400 in 2010 [related article: The Medicin Seems to be Working]. In July last year, the European Commission unveiled a follow-up plan, which again set a target of halving road deaths, and again involved a combination of measures [related article: How the Commission Plans to Halve Road Deaths].

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