Road losses in energy-damaged people and property are a subset of the ancient problem of people and property damaged by energy exchanges of all types, including those involving thermal, electrical, mechanical, and other forms of energy. From this standpoint, loss-reduction options can be systematically analyzed and effective countermeasures (that frequently had no logical place in the inept, traditional rhetoric of "accident prevention") identified. In describing this logical approach, special emphasis is given to the essential distinction between the priority (or rank) order of countermeasures in terms of their contribution to loss reduction and the sequence (or rank order) of causes.