Based on official WHO statistics more than 1 million people lose their lives in traffic accidents every year. And the amount is increasing. Especially in developing countries the situation gets more and more dramatic. India has the highest number of reported road traffic fatalities in the world, about 147 000 deaths in 2015, which means 11% of all worldwide. This equals with at least 17 people dying on the roads every hour!

Key factors for a continuous upwards trend of fatalities are related to an increasing vehicle fleet, a high number of vulnerable road users, driver behavior, infrastructure and vehicle factors. In order to bring down fatality rates in developing countries and to improve safety additional efforts need to be taken into account besides new car assessment programs.

In 2015 Daimler has started a unique CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative to increase the safety awareness in India, called SAFE ROADS. The objective is to convey importance of basic and enhanced safety through exhibits and key presentations. The initiative visited eight cities all over India, starting in New Delhi in April 2015. With several presentations at universities and malls safety topics were not only communicated but also demonstrated via exhibits. To reach the Indian public also elements such as TV panel discussion and live radio broadcasting were included in the different events. Several exhibits like the Experimental Safety Vehicle “ESF 2009”, a crash test vehicle, a belt sled and a body in white model gave the possibility to address safety and allow personal “touch&feel” experience for the audience.

The presentation during the ESV conference will give an insight view on the approach as well as on key learnings made during the last 2.5 years. It will show how the target - an increased safety awareness of Indian public in behavioral aspects as well as an enhanced understanding of the potentials and limitations of vehicle safety systems – could be reached and what further steps are taken to establish sustainable measures in India and how the concept was transformed to a new approach for SAFE ROADS in China. It is also focusing on main challenges in these countries and which have to be taken care of at first hand in order to generate quick wins.

To improve global safety it is important that everyone takes responsibility and contributes. Especially for developing countries we need to find, share and discuss measures that support this goal continuously.