In 1995, a Peugeot 205 GTI crashed in Sweden. Then began a world revolution in road safety

It is estimated that 9,344 people died in traffic accidents in Spain in 1989. It was a real barbarity and a historical peak that, luckily, it seems that is far from repeating. These last ten years, Spain has moved among the 1,145 deceased in 2023 and 1,873 of 2014. They are still too many and a problem that several countries have tried to address. One of them was Sweden, which in the 90s proposed the ambitious goal of ending road deaths on their roads.

His plan was baptized as ‘Vision Zero’, and it is something that has not only been exported to the rest of the world, but has changed the way in which manufacturers and authorities address both the construction of vehicles and roads.

The accident that changed everything. In BBC Podemos read The case that convinced the Swedish authorities to start raising better road safety measures. A car crashed near an exit ramp when I was on its way to Ikea. The accident occurred against a concrete post that protected a lamppost and fulfilled its function for furniture, but caused the five passengers to lose their lives.

At that time of 1995, Claes Tingvall had already been promoted to the Head of Road Safety of the Swedish Administration and remembers two things: that driving a three -door Peugeot 205 GTI and that, with the wet road and surely due to the speed of the vehicle They did Aquaplaing.

The limits of security. At that time, vehicle security technology focused on what he baptized as “measures to mitigate the second impact.” Manufacturers focused on safety measures such as better children, airbags and safety belts. Come on, passive measures that, in addition, did not take into account what happened outside the vehicle (such as pedestrians or obstacles).

Tingvall told BBC that it was insufficient, since “the car cannot solve everything” and realized that road deaths from traffic accidents were a mixture between the car itself, driver’s behavior, the safety features of the safety of vehicle and road conditions.

Measures. In fact, Tingvall believes that the authorities were responsible. The reason was that, when he went to the transport authority to ask what would be done after the accident, he was answered that they would quickly replace the concrete with … a new one. It was not enough, so Tingvall demanded to eliminate all these posts and create “clear areas” on the sides of the roads so that, if someone leaves, does not clash against a wall.

The authorities were not very convinced, since this would be to admit that the road design was wrong. In addition, all criminal punishments were focused on the reckless driver, but little by little they convinced that something should change and raised a new road safety approach called … ‘Vision Zero‘.

‘Vision Zero’. “How many deaths should we have a long -term objective?” That was the question that Tingvall’s policy and Minister of Infrastructure made to the official. His response was: “zero.” It is something that caught the minister to her surprise, but the movements to achieve this utopian target with a bill presented in the Swedish Parliament in 1997 began.

The objective was to have zero deaths on the road and was something that involved not only cars drivers and manufacturers, but also the authorities. A clause was very clear in this, since officials could no longer design roads for idealized drivers that are never distracted or exceed the limit. Said like this:

“If road users do not properly assume their part of responsibility, for example, due to the lack of knowledge or skills, or if personal injuries occur or there is a risk that they occur for other reasons, system designers must take measures additional to prevent people from dying or suffering serious injuries. “

Strategies. Ok, the theory is fine, but what does ‘Vision Zero’ imply? The project is based on the maximum that life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits for society and support In four principles:

• Ethics: Road safety is a responsibility and no death or serious injury due to a traffic accident should be considered inevitable.
• Responsibility: Both system designers (which includes authorities, engineers and legislators) and road users share responsibility for road safety.
• Security: the human errors are inevitableso the system must be designed to minimize the consequences of these errors.
• Change You have to promote better systems, strategies, infrastructure and speed limits to reduce the probability of fatal accidents.

Roads 2+1. Within these strategies when designing roads, programs such as “Roads 2+1” come into play. Its name can be enigmatic, but basically it is roads that are not highways/highways, but they have three lanes. Thus, there is a lane in the direction, but also a central one that is the one that is used alternately to advance, reducing the probability of a frontal collision.

This is something that minimizes driver’s frustration, maneuvers such as “look” to see if you can advance and also reduce the amount of insecure maneuvers we perform on the road. It is something that is already being tested in several countries, including Spain with cases like that of the National 121-A in Navarra.

And roundabouts. Another measures that proposes This strategy is one that is extremely common in European countries, but not so much in others such as the United States. And those are, for some, complicated roundabouts. The reasoning is simple: at a crossroad, there is always a route in which the speed is greater than in which it is crossed, so it is easier for there to be accidents.

In a roundabout, although there may also be a mess due to the use of lanes and intermittent, all who approach the roundabout and circulate within it must reduce their speed, so, if there are reach, these are at a much lower speed than at a cross.

Technology in the vehicle. However, although these policies and fall on the authorities side (and that of users in the part of civic responsibility and behavior that they have), vehicle manufacturers must also put on your part. Volvo was one of the companies that more helped to expand certain security systems and standards after the proposal of Vision Zero.

In fact, the program EURO NCAP It was born thanks to the International Automobile Federation and the National Road Administration of Sweden in 1996 to examine cars before launching to the market. Volvo and Renault were among the first to meet high standards and there were also cases such as the Rover 100which had to be removed after a dire exam (zero stars).

Apart from structural improvements in vehicles, a series of Advanced driving assistance systemsor Adas, for its acronym in English, such as POLETIC BLACK BOX OF VEHICLES.

Exporting the model. Vision Zero has evolved over time, becoming something that has been examined Even in the European Parliament and that has been taken to other countries. We have already talked about the case of Navarra, but it is something that has been exported other Spanish cities such as Valencia and countries like MexicoAustralia, Norway, France, Germany, Colombia or the United States. One of the cases is that of Jersey City, which is frame an ambitious plan and that, in 2023, achieved eliminate mortal accidents from their ways for months.

Challenges. Returning to Tingvall, with measures such as a 2+1 road test in Sweden, Calculate which were reduced by half the number of people dead and seriously injured. In other countries there are also success cases, with cities such as Oslo either Helsinki Reporting zero pedestrian deaths in 2019.

However, it is something that remains a focus on debate, especially when measures are raised as Limit speed either restrict Traffic in residential neighborhoods. Here, the Swedish official is clear: someone’s courage is needed in the administration that says “this is where the line between listening to politics, listening to science and human rights.”

In the end, the objective is to reduce accidents, but unfortunately, there are times that when road safety goes against interests such as the economic one, there are those who do the second. And we have recently seen in Malaysia with the Fluorescent paint on poorly illuminated roads.

In Xataka | Rudolf StrickerVision Zero, Kettle

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