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Open Access 01-12-2009 | Original Article

Saving lives in road traffic—ethical aspects

Author: Jessica Nihlén Fahlquist

Published in: Journal of Public Health | Issue 6/2009

Abstract

Aim

This article aims at giving an overview of five ethical problem areas relating to traffic safety, thereby providing a general framework for analysing traffic safety from an ethical perspective and encouraging further discussion concerning problems, policies and technology in this area.

Subjects and methods

The problems presented in the article are criminalisation, paternalism, privacy, justice and responsibility, and the reasons for choosing these are the following. First, they are all important areas in moral philosophy. Second, they are fairly general and it should be possible to categorise more specific problems under these headings. Ethical aspects of road traffic have not received the philosophical attention they deserve. Every year, more than 1 million people die globally in traffic accidents, and 20 to 50 million people are injured. Ninety per cent of the road traffic fatalities occur in low- and middle-income countries, where it is a growing problem. Politics, economics, culture and technology affect the number of fatalities and injuries, and the measures used to combat deaths in traffic as well as the role of road traffic should be ethically scrutinised. The topics are analysed and discussed from a moral-philosophical perspective, and the discussion includes both theory and applications.

Results and conclusion

The author concludes with some thoughts on how the ethical discussion can be included in the public debate on how to save lives in road traffic. People in industrialised societies are so used to road traffic that it is almost seen as part of nature. Consequently, we do not acknowledge that we can introduce change and that we can affect the role we have given road traffic and cars. By acknowledging the ethical aspects of road traffic and illuminating the way the choices society makes are ethically charged, it becomes clear that there are alternative ways to design the road traffic system. The most important general conclusion is that discussion concerning these alternative ways of designing the system should be encouraged.

The environmental problems associated with road traffic are not discussed in this particular paper, but it should be acknowledged that they too imply important ethical problems. The focus in this paper is on the prevention of road traffic fatalities and injuries.

The road traffic death toll in Sweden is about 400-500 lives a year.

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Norway adopted Vision Zero in 2001. The “Sustainable Traffic Safety” approach in The Netherlands stresses that the unpredictable and fallible nature of human beings as the weakest link in the transport system should be taken into account as a reason to build safer, sustainable systems to be able to cope with human error [Pieter van Vliet and Govert Schemers (2000) “Sustainable safety” Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (http://www.rws-avv.nl/pls/portal30/docs/1771.PDF), p. 9]. These are similar examples of a changing perspective focussing more on systemic improvement than individual errors and blame.

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Title: Saving lives in road traffic—ethical aspects
Author: Jessica Nihlén Fahlquist
Publication date: 01-12-2009
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Published in: Journal of Public Health / Issue 6/2009
Print ISSN: 2198-1833
Electronic ISSN: 1613-2238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-009-0264-7

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Saving lives in road traffic—ethical aspects

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Aim

Subjects and methods

Results and conclusion

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