午夜福利1000集合

If a jumbo jet crashed in Europe every three days, killing all its passengers, travellers would demand action. But that鈥檚 the rate at which people die on European roads.

The World 午夜福利1000集合 Organization predicts that the number of traffic deaths worldwide each year, currently 1.2 million, will increase by 65 per cent by 2020 to make it the third biggest cause of death around the globe. Extensive measures must be taken to make the roads less lethal, and Claes Tingvall, director of traffic safety at Sweden鈥檚 National Road Administration, has made it his mission.

With the conviction that cutting-edge technologies will save lives, Tingvall launched the 鈥渮ero vision鈥� project in 1997, aiming to halve the number of traffic deaths in his country within 10 years. He successfully lobbied for the installation of wire barriers in the centres of roads, and for the use of innovative safety mechanisms such as seat belt reminders, electronic stability-control devices and 鈥渁lcolocks鈥� to deter drunk driving. And all this after twice losing his licence for speeding violations.

The European Union is following his lead, and introduced its own zero vision last December. Pelle Neroth talks to the scientist who insists 鈥渢he only acceptable figure for traffic deaths is nil鈥�.

Your plan was to halve the number of traffic deaths in Sweden by 2007. Is it working?

Last year we saw a drastic drop in the number of traffic deaths, the lowest ever at 480, compared with 631 a decade ago. Partitioning the lanes of country roads with thousands of kilometres of fenced cables has reduced frontal collisions by 95 per cent. Car makers now install electronic seat belt reminders on 80 per cent of Swedish cars. That鈥檚 up from almost none just a few years ago.

A technology called electronic stability control is a great new improvement. ESC compares the position of the steering wheel with the way the car is actually moving, and if there鈥檚 a discrepancy it slows the engine and applies the brakes. This can stop a car from skidding on a wet road or around a turn. Seventy per cent of Swedish cars are now equipped with this technology 鈥� that鈥檚 triple what it was 18 months ago, top of the world league. In the US, where the use of ESC is about 20 per cent, the results of a consumer survey suggest it is twice as effective at saving lives as airbags, and could halve the number of single vehicle fatal car crashes.

We won鈥檛 reach our target by 2007, in part because traffic has increased since we set that goal. There are more foreign trucks on the road and more young people drinking and speeding. But the plan is working.

A large number of deaths are caused by drunk-driving. How do you deal with that?

Alcohol is a growing problem 鈥� it is estimated that more than half of single crashes on state highways are caused by drivers under the influence. Alcolocks can change that. The idea is that you have to blow into the apparatus in order to start the car, and at regular intervals during the journey, or else the car will stop. These devices have been used in Canada, Sweden and the US for convicted drunk drivers who get to keep their licences if they keep alcolocks in their cars for two years. But the Swedish government is the first to propose that all new cars be sold with alcolocks from 2012, and lorries, taxis and buses from 2010.

After a high-profile accident last year, which involved a drunk Hungarian lorry driver going the wrong way down the motorway and killing four people, a lot of Swedish firms are taking their own initiatives. Trucking firms and bus companies are already installing alcolocks on their vehicles. At the moment they are expensive, over 聙1000. They also take a long time to warm up. But the concept is being developed. In the future we may not use breathalysers at all, but more subtle instruments such as on-board computers that detect when the car is being driven in an erratic way characteristic of drunk driving, and then cut the ignition.

Isn鈥檛 that a lot of government control over people鈥檚 lives?

People say things like that, but it鈥檚 actually a liberating principle. It is every human being鈥檚 right to use the road without risking their life as an entrance fee. Some campaigners say that driving drunk is like having a 1-tonne murder weapon at your disposal. Fourteen thousand people a day drive while intoxicated on Sweden鈥檚 roads, and that is unacceptable.

Do people in Sweden appreciate what you鈥檝e done?

People have sent me cakes with my name on them after they have been in an accident but survived. And the critics are coming around. At first they were sarcastic about the wire fences in the middle of roads, but now they see that they work. Around the world people are using the zero vision project as a reference. It鈥檚 on the map now, and it won鈥檛 go away. In December the EU鈥檚 25 transport ministers signed a joint declaration promising to halve traffic deaths in their countries by 2010. Forty thousand people die every year on Europe鈥檚 roads, the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every three days. People want solutions.

Are you exploring other safety measures?

A colleague at the Transport Research Laboratory in the UK says that many deaths could be avoided by restructuring the front bumper to absorb energy and reduce the chances of leg breakage. The average cost would be less than 聙100. There is also a technology called speed limiters, in which the accelerator vibrates or a voice sounds an alarm when the driver exceeds the speed limit, as measured by GPS. Sweden is running a trial in four towns, and both the European Commission and the UK Department for Transport are interested in the technology.

What about the behaviour of individual drivers?

Drivers can improve their survival rates significantly by wearing seat belts, keeping to the speed limit and not drinking. But the zero vision recognises that everyone makes mistakes, and there will always be accidents, even with the best drivers. So we have to take a comprehensive approach to safety, tackling not only individual road users鈥� behaviour but also road infrastructure and vehicle design.

You lost your driving licence twice in the 1980s for speeding. Does that undermine your credibility?

I loved driving fast. It was a poison. I did it frequently and I was caught twice. I felt a great sorrow 鈥� like losing someone close to me 鈥� having to give up speeding. I understand a young man鈥檚 addiction to driving fast. But I made a pledge to myself that I wouldn鈥檛 speed and I haven鈥檛 done it since. It would be insane, given my position.

Safety is expensive, and ultimately it鈥檚 a cost-benefit analysis issue. How much is a life worth?

It is estimated that the public values a life at 聙1.7 million. That is how much they are prepared to pay in taxes for improvements to save a life. Wire barriers at 聙140 per metre are cheap by that measure, especially since they make the safety of country highways equivalent to that of motorways 鈥� the safest roads around 鈥� which cost 聙6000 a metre.

But don鈥檛 these numbers only apply to rich countries?

Not at all. We鈥檙e providing a model for the whole world. When developing countries can afford to install safety measures, they won鈥檛 have to reinvent the wheel. They can adopt all our tried-and-tested safety measures. And they can learn to design their towns and cities in ways that don鈥檛 maximise contact between human and car, as we in the west have failed to do with such dire consequences.

What鈥檚 the hardest part of your job?

When I can鈥檛 get a safety measure through and then someone dies in a way that would have been prevented. It has happened many times, and I have to deal with the stories. There was a 50-year-old Belgian teacher who wasn鈥檛 speeding or drunk but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a child ran out into the road. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 realise that anything was wrong 鈥� until I saw flesh on the windscreen,鈥� she told me. 鈥淚 went to the child, held her head鈥� she was beautiful. A few minutes later I heard a woman screaming, and instinctively I knew it was the child鈥檚 mother. For those awful moments she wasn鈥檛 just her child, she was our child. I felt totally responsible.鈥� She had a nervous breakdown after that, and couldn鈥檛 bear to be around young children. This job is really about life and death, and it can be hard. But I counterbalance the sorrow of lost lives with optimism about all those that we can still save.