So What Measure Should We Use

Progressing toward zero by reducing the absolute numbers year upon year, despite the inexorable increases in the numbers of road users, registered vehicles, and the 

Eliminating Serious Injury and Death from Road Transport 

Measuring the position of road crash disabling injuries and deaths relative to other public health diseases using age-adjusted measures must also be an important adjunct to targets seeking reductions in absolute numbers. Road trauma is a disease related to our lifestyle, and it is time we conceptualised and treated it as such. 

It is also vital that governments set their safety targets quantitatively. Research has shown that nations with qnantitative targets in their safety strategies do better than those withont, and that those with stretch quantitative targets do better still. -  

When benchmarking, both transport safety and personal safety rates are valuable comparators but, as Table 3.2 clearly shows, must also include an examination of the trends in absolute numbers. As nations road transport systems grow and mature, there is inexorable improvement in both rates, improvement that can obscure a relative lack of improvement compared with what others achieve. 

---