>According to a World Health Organization (WHO) survey, 1.24 million people worldwide die in traffic accidents each year, making them the eighth leading cause of death. While the number of deaths due to traffic accidents has been decreasing slightly in Japan, North America and Europe, it has been steadily increasing in emerging nations where traffic safety education and transportation infrastructure have not kept up with increases in the number of cars on the road. On a global scale, traffic fatalities continue to increase steadily and are expected to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030 unless countermeasures are implemented.
Toyota utilizes the trinity or considers following the 3 pillars: "People / Vehicles / Traffic Environment" to implement the mobile society's ultimate goal, "zero casualties from traffic accidents."
*Adapted from : Global status report on road safety 2009
Toyota has emphasized traffic safety education since the 1960s.Toyota offers safety driving lecture sessions for drivers and traffic safety education activities for kindergarten children, nursery school toddlers and teenagers. Other education activities such as "Hands-on Traffic Safety Events" and the "Toyota Traffic Safety Campaign" have been held for a wide range of the population.
More than 100 million illustrated traffic safety books for kindergarten children and nursery school toddlers have been given away since Toyota started distributing them in 1969.
Additionally, traffic safety education activities are being expanded by the utilization of connections with Toyota's establishments overseas.
Find out more about Toyota's Traffic Safety Education Activities.
Toyota has been implementing "safety" measures to help create safer vehicles. Toyota analyzes the causes of the accident and passenger injuries by using various accident investigation data. These accidents are reenacted in various simulations to create counter-plan technologies. In addition, experiments on an actual full-scale vehicle are conducted before launching the vehicle. Afterwards, the effectiveness of the technologies is inspected by assessing any accidents that might occur.
We strive to learn from actual accidents to continue to meet industry's ever higher standards in safety.
Toyota analyzes data from various accidents and strives to always make improvements using the above methods.
Toyota actively works with the Japanese Government toward implementing a safe traffic environment and to help reduce the number of traffic accidents by participating in the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. Recently, a policy was proposed with the fundamental idea of having "all of the traffic participants coexist with peace of mind" and emphasized more "traffic safety provisioning implementation that is from the point of view of people-oriented." Furthermore, Toyota will be actively participating and working with the Japanese Government to help enact fundamental traffic safety plans. Toyota will continue to support suitable traffic environment construction and will validate its outcome by continuing the advancement of research. To achieve a revolutionary safe transportation system, unity between a car and the transportation environment is critical. Toyota is actively taking part in helping to achieve this goal. More information about Toyota's initiative with Intelligent Transport Systems, the future mobility society etc. can be found on the "Intelligent Transport Systems" page.