Road safety has been interpreted as a major challenge to public policy only in recent years, in that traffic accidents are frequently considered random acts caused by fundamentally inevitable misfortune. The authors of this short book offer a complete overview of road accidents, including the topics of "unsustainable" traffic, vehicle safety, driver behaviour, and the human and social costs of poor road safety. They also address the road safety policies implemented in various European countries and discuss their outcomes. The text is a useful reading for all - motorists, cyclists, pedestrians - and reminds us that respect for road rules means safeguarding other people's lives as well as our own.

Rodolfo Lewanski teaches Environmental Policy at the University of Bologna. Chiara Tintori has earned a Ph.D. in Political Science.