Legislation to reduce the risk and/or occurrence of injuries due to traffic accidents in residential areas

Conclusion: Indications for effectiveness

Legislation/ policy reducing vehicle speeds in residential areas leads to reduced injuries and changes in driver behaviour.
In the United Kingdom, introduction of 20 mph (32 km/hour) speed limit zones resulted in 70% reduction in fatal child pedestrian
accidents.

Recommendations (for research & practice)

• Level of enforcement will impact effectiveness.
• Legislation is most effective when supported by educational activities.

Review Date: 14/06/2007
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)