Enforcement of legislation at national level and general traffic safety

Conclusion: Strong indications for effectiveness

The countries with the best road safety record have national implementation plans which comprise a wide range of measures:
low speed limits, speed reduction measures,promotion of secondary safety and publicity aimed at both children and their parents and
drivers.

Recommendations (for research & practice)

Building on past policies or international agreements can lead to progress.

• Political commitment at the highest level is necessary to make road safety a priority for all in government and society.
• Media coverage is an important aspect of national safety campaigns.
• A combination of engineering, enforcement and education is most effective.

Review Date: 15/06/2007
Version: 1.0
Status: Provisional statement

Procedure
This evidence statement is based on information of the Good Practice Guide of the Child Safety Alliance. In this document the 'Good Practice' and related statement are defined as:

1) A prevention strategy that has been evaluated and found to be effective (either through a systematic review or at least one rigorous evaluation) OR
2) A prevention strategy where rigorous evaluation is difficult but expert opinion supports the practice and data suggest it is an effective strategy (e.g., use of personal floatation devices (PFD) to prevent drowning) OR
3) A prevention strategy where rigorous evaluation is difficult but expert opinion supports the practice and there is a clear link between the strategy and reduced risk but a less clear link between the strategy and reduced injuries (e.g., secure storage of poisonings) AND
4) The strategy in question has been implemented in a real world setting so that the practicality of the intervention has also been examined.

Background documents

Child Safety Good Practice Guide : good investments in unintential child injury prevention and safety promotion (version 1)
M. MacKay, J. Vincenten, M. Brussoni, L. Towner ...[et al.] (2006)