Intelligent transport systems and safety in road traffic

Transport safety can be defined in a number of ways, including the official World Health Organisation (WHO) safety definition ‘freedom from unacceptable risk of harm’. Road safety is, however, usually defined in a negative way. Safe road traffic is characterised by the absence of crashes, injuries and fatalities. Crashes are used here instead of accidents because the word accident leads thoughts in the direction of an event that is hard to do something about ľ “it happened by accident”. For society and for the individual, the loss of health is the most serious effect of crashes. It leads both to serious personal suffering and to huge societal losses in monetary terms. Therefore, it is essential to state at this early stage that loss of health is the main road safety criterion. Convalescence and health restoration have economic consequences as have vehicle damage and loss of vehicles and goods.