The journey to safer roads

Every 30 seconds someone is killed in a road crash – that's more than 1.2 million people per year. A further 50 million suffer moderate to severe injuries. When a road crash claims the life of a loved one, a family is scarred forever.

For this reason, we want to acknowledge the victims of road traffic crashes and their families on this year's World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, celebrated annually on the third Sunday of November. The relatives of crash victims have to cope with bereavement or the effects of injury, and thus become part of the huge group of people affected by road tragedies.

In a bid to prevent more families from experiencing the devastation of losing a loved one to a road crash, we want to help reverse the trend. At ISO, there are standards that can help make roads safer. They range from basic specifications for wheels, braking systems and road holding ability, to crash protection, child restraint systems and ergonomics. Many aim to improve compatibility, interchangeability and safety, or to provide the requirements for harmonized test procedures for evaluating performance.

We can now look forward to a major breakthrough in the realm of traffic safety with the new ISO 39001. With the management systems standard on road traffic safety published in 2012, a contribution is made to the United Nations' ambitious goal of preventing five million road traffic deaths by 2020.

This new International Standard is expected to have a considerable impact on the future of traffic safety by providing state-of-the-art requirements for such aspects as speed, vehicle condition and driver awareness.

Reference: ISOorg