Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020: Global Plan Document (PDF)Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020: Saving Millions of Lives
General Assembly resolution 64/2551 of March 2010 proclaimed 2011–2020 the Decade of Action for road safety, with a global goal of stabilizing and then reducing the forecasted level of global road fatalities by increasing activities conducted at national, regional and global levels. The guiding principles underlying the Plan for the Decade of Action are those included in the "safe system" approach. This approach aims to develop a road transport system that is better able to accommodate human error and take into consideration the vulnerability of the human body. It starts from the acceptance of human error and thus the realization that traffic crashes cannot be completely avoided. The goal of a safe system is to ensure that accidents do not result in serious human injury. The approach considers that human limitations - what the human body can stand in terms of kinetic energy - is an important basis upon which to design the road transport system, and that other aspects of the road system, such as the development of the road environment and the vehicle, must be harmonized on the basis of these limitations. Road users, vehicles and the road network/environment are addressed in an integrated manner, through a wide range of interventions, with greater attention to speed management and vehicle and road design than in traditional approaches to road safety.