An update on the association between setting quantified road safety targets and road fatality reduction

This note is intended to rectify estimates provided in a previous paper (Wong et al., 2006) of the short-term effectiveness in terms of road fatality reduction of the setting of quantified road safety targets using data from 14 OECD countries during the period 1980-1999. This work is important in measuring the association between target setting and road safety improvement, because such targets are intended to serve as a useful tool to motivate timely road safety measures by the road authorities and others. The estimates to be rectified were based on before-and-after analysis using a comparison group of countries for each country that had set a target. This note first provides a correction to the qualification test for the inclusion of a country in any particular comparison group. It then presents the numerical effects of this correction on the estimates of the effectiveness of setting quantified road safety targets, both in individual countries and across the whole group of countries that set targets in the relevant period. Finally, impacts on the findings of the previous paper are discussed, with the conclusion that the changes in those of the numerical estimates that are affected do not alter the main message of the paper.