Safety and Health

Health risks arising from traffic noise and emissions and road safety risks continue to represent major challenges for the automobile industry. In the Western nations, manufacturers have achieved steady improvements through safety technologies, clean fuels and technical developments relating to emission control, combustion processes and noise reduction. In Germany today, for example, the risk of a road accident is considerably lower than the risk of an accident in the home. We can anticipate further significant improvements regarding nitrogen- and carbon oxides, volatile organic compounds and particulates as new and more stringent thresholds and controls take effect. Lead emissions have been virtually eliminated. But above all in emerging and developing countries there remains a lot to be done.

In Road safety: a public health issue (2004), the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that every year 1.2 million people are killed and more than 50 million people injured in road accidents. According to the WHO’s Global Burden of Disease, over the period from 2000 to 2020 we are likely to see a further 80 percent increase in developing nations and a rise of as much as 144 percent in South-East Asia. In the industrialised nations, the number of road accident victims is set to fall by a further 30 percent by 2020.

Inadequate infrastructure
The positive trend in the industrialised nations proves that the connection between the increasing number of automobiles and the number of road traffic fatalities is merely an indirect one. Further evidence is provided by the fact that the majority of accident victims in developing countries are among the group of “weaker” road users (children, pedestrians, cyclists, etc.).

The root causes here are deficiencies in planning, designing and financing infrastructures. There is also insufficient information and training for drivers, as well as a lack of effective emergency service provision.

Global action
The global introduction of proven standards in the fields of passive safety, infrastructure and vehicle technology could help to ease the situation in emerging and developing countries. National governments, legislative bodies, judiciaries and local authorities are all called upon to play their part in this respect.

Intelligent systems
Today, drivers can already buy intelligent systems that help them react appropriately to road traffic risks while leaving them in full control of their vehicle. Looking further ahead, the goal must be to develop an integrated system which analyses all the relevant health and safety risks. This system must help drivers to travel safely in complex traffic environments anywhere in the world. The automobile industry is playing a pioneering role in moving towards this goal.

Widespread networking
As a leading supplier of mobility systems, the Volkswagen Group is playing its part in various international projects focused on vehicle safety and accident research.

Above all, widespread intelligent vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure networking can be expected to play a major part in improving road safety and efficient traffic management. 

Noise as a health risk
A great deal also remains to be done regarding noise and pollutant emissions, especially in the world’s megacities in emerging and developing countries. According to calculations by the Sustainable Mobility Project set up by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), there has been an improvement in lead emissions, reflecting the growing availability of unleaded fuels. The outlook for coming decades regarding other harmful emissions is less positive, due to increasing traffic volumes and under-developed emission control technologies.

Beyond Europe and Japan there is also little awareness of the harmful effects of traffic noise. As living standards rise, however, the economic costs of traffic noise will become a driver of additional measures. Manufacturers and retailers need to bring even cleaner fuels and lower-emission powertrains to market at affordable prices, as well as to make decisive progress in terms of noise abatement.