ATHENS, Ohio -- Can severe road traffic injuries be prevented? Swiss researcher Christian Huber, manager of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention's traffic engineering department in Berne, Switzerland, thinks so. Huber will present "Vision Zero as the Basis for a Road Safety Policy in Switzerland" on Jan. 15 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Stocker Center 103 on Ohio University's West Green. The lecture is sponsored by the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment (ORITE) in the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology.

The European Union hopes to halve the number of traffic fatalities by the year 2010. While the number of Swiss accidents have declined in recent years, about 6,000 people are severely injured annually on Swiss roads. The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention and its partners developed Vision Zero to completely eliminate severe road traffic injuries in the country.

The causes and opportunities for prevention of road traffic-related death are widely known in contrast to other health-related causes of death. Vision Zero recognizes that human decisions play just as much a role in road accidents as do the technical problems of automobiles – and the project aims to reduce the opportunity for those human mistakes.

Huber has authored, co-authored and edited major road safety publications and has presented various papers on accident analysis, school trip safety, roundabout safety, road space design, bicycle safety, public lighting, and other topics.

ORITE, established in 1987, provides primary research support for the Ohio Department of Transportation and other transportation departments through its ability to test new formulations of pavement and other transportation structures.

The Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, educates well-rounded professionals with both technical and team-project skills. The Russ College offers undergraduate and graduate degrees across the traditional engineering spectrum and in technology disciplines such as aviation, computer science, and industrial technology. Research areas currently receiving significant funding include avionics, distributed and secure computing, fuel cells, oil and gas pipeline corrosion, and environmental pipes and culverts. Named for alumnus Fritz Russ and his wife Dolores, the Russ College is home of the Russ Prize, one of the top three engineering prizes in the world. For more information, visit www.ohio.edu/engineering.

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Media Contact: Russ College Director of External Relations Colleen Girton, (740) 593-1488 or girtonc@ohio.edu, or Media Specialist Jack Jeffery, (740) 597-1793

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