Road-safety management in Brazil, Russia, India, and China

Abstract

This study examined road-safety management in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRIC countries). The main topics reviewed were recent crash statistics, key governmental agencies in charge of road safety, road-safety programs, influential organizations outside of the government, key research institutes, and major barriers to improvement. The main findings are as follows: (1) Each BRIC country has governmental organizations with responsibilities for road safety. However, none of these countries has a single lead governmental unit responsible for national road safety. (2) The Russian Federation has a strategic road-safety plan, including a specific target for reduction of road fatalities. The strategic safety plan of China is limited to certain types of roads, and it aims to reduce fatality rates per vehicle. In Brazil and India, there is not yet any road-safety plan or road-safety targets. (3) There are several non-governmental organizations involved in road-safety work in Brazil, the Russian Federation, and India, but not in China. (4) Road-safety research is conducted in each of the four countries. (5) All four countries have recently introduced several new road-safety interventions. However, the introduced interventions are not based on a systems approach that would involve comprehensive measures supporting each other, or they are not applied uniformly throughout the country.