Relation to previous work

During the last few years, 1 have worked on a variety of international projects focusing on road safely development in developing countries. One of the most important lessons I have learned is that the concept of Road Safety Development is broader and more complex than what 1 have learned in theory during my undergraduate years and master s study. I now realise how much this development in road safety requires deeper processes, integrated programs and much more cooperation between all the key bodies, which are responsible for road safety in the country. Road safety concerns everyone and all aspects of hfe. 

During these overseas experiences and our visits to different countries, I had the opportunity to discuss road safety development with local professionals and consultants. There I also had the opportunities to attend various conferences, seminars and workshops and to hsten to experts from different countries. This was a rewarding learning experience, which was especially meaningful for me in terms of future contacts. There were always questions raised during this work, for instance, how do we define and measure road safety development in a country How do we determine the progress this country has achieved How do we estabhsh targets for road safety improvement in a country Until now, there is no simple answer to these questions. This has inspired me to develop sets of macro-indicators that can be used as appropriate benchmarks to compare the performance of different countries. I started to use previous results of the projects as a point of departure, in order to build a model from the conclusions drawn. 

By keeping this goal, some two years ago. I, together with my advisor, met representatives of many departments and organisations in Sweden, such as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and Karolinska Institute where we have introduced a new concept of road safety performance, which we called RSDI Road Safety Development Index. We emphasised the broader concept of road safety development more than the accident rates that are currently used. 

To address national development in the area of road safely, it is desirable to view road safely level in a global context. Road safely is a complex issue and there is a high number of factors and indicators involved in the accidents. This situation leads me to examine several theories and models in order to compare the achievements in road safety between diffeient countries and regions. The problem itself is underestimated in many countries, especially in developing countries where the issue is challenging. The progress in any country will be minimum unless the country has a good and standard measurement to rely on (e.g. RSDI), in comparisons and problem formulation. 

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In relation to previous works, formula 2 was employed in this work, and formula 3 is referred to in the results. The trivalent ions employed here for R3 were Sc , In +, Ei +, Gd , Sm3+, Eu +, Nd + and La + as well as Y +. These results are to be interpreted in terms of the effect of the rare earth ions on the crystallization of N5-type phase in glasses. 

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