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IRU road safety - For a safer road transport industry: road safety, road traffic, crashes, fatalities, traffic safety

Road Safety

Safety as an ​overarching priority​

  • Accidents cause more than 3,500 casualties on the world’s roads every day.* ​
  • Road safety has always been, and will remain, the top priority of the road transport industry. ​
  • In addition to human lives, accidents also affect transport operations. Disrupted transport supply chains, immobilised vehicles, higher insurance premiums and the cost of repairs all impact transport services.​
  • Safety drives all aspects of IRU's work, to help make roads safer everywhere, for all, in alignment with the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety.​

“If we don’t get road transport and safety right, we won’t get any of the sustainable development goals right.”

Umberto de Pretto
Secretary General, IRU

People are at the centre of commercial road transport operations

For all approaches to safety, including “Vision Zero” and the “Safe System Approach”, a focus on the human factor should be the priority.

Main causes of road transport accidents
The main cause of accidents is the human factor (Source: ETAC).

 

Leading road safety solutions​

IRU supports all measures that improve road safety, in effectively targeting the main causes of accidents involving professional vehicles.

We support governments, public sector authorities and the industry through:

  • Road Safety advocacy and technical assistance
  • Institutional qualification management solutions

Our road safety solutions are designed to equip the road transport industry with:

  • Training for safer transport operations​
  • Certification to strengthen safety culture​
  • Technology to manage safety

 

IRU actions for safe road transport

Awareness - Formalisation
Capacity building - Validation

 

* Source: WHO, Road traffic injuries 2016

UN road safety ​resolution acknowledges​ IRU’s contribution to saving lives

IRU efforts on improving road safety was acknowledged by the UN Road Safety Resolution A/RES/74/299, ​adopted by the UN General Assembly in August 2020.