More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent them

On 22 May 1997, the Swedish government presented Bill 1996/97:137 to parliament. It cemented zero deaths as a long-term goal for road fatalities. It reiterated that transport designers were responsible for maintaining the road system, while drivers were expected to drive responsibly and follow the rules. However, a further clause stated that:

“If the road users do not adequately assume their share of the responsibility, for example, due to a lack of knowledge or skill, or if personal injuries occur or risk occurring for other reasons, the system designers must take additional further measures to prevent people being killed or seriously injured.”

This meant that officials were no longer allowed to design roads for idealised drivers who never became distracted or exceeded the speed limit. They had to make roads for real people who made mistakes.

As Tingvall puts it: “It should be up to the professional community to make sure that that normal people, doing normal mistakes, don’t lead to them killing themselves or someone else.”

Even intentional law-breaking was to be considered when designing the system. The reality is that drivers do speed, and they get distracted by their phones or other passengers in the car. “Don’t pretend that there are laws that you know everyone will follow,” Tingvall says. “That’s very unprofessional. You would never do that in aviation or in other areas where you really care for safety.” —BBC