title: Rapid assessment of road safety policy change: relaxation of the national speed enforcement law in Russia leads to large increases in the prevalence of speeding.
abstract: Reducing vehicle speed is among the most effective road safety strategies. We assess how a new policy in Russia that eliminates fines for driving up to 20 km/h above the speed limit has affected the prevalence of speeding. We measured speeds periodically in 13 districts of two Russian regions during 2011-2013 and analysed the effect of the policy using difference-in-differences to control for seasonality. We find that the prevalence of speeding was declining steadily but half of the gains since mid-2011 were lost immediately after the new policy. Overall speeding increased significantly by 13 percentage points (pp, 95% CI 4 to 19). Speeding more than 10 km/h above the limit increased significantly by 10 pp (95% CI 2 to 12), and extreme speeding increased but not significantly (1.7 pp, 95% CI -1.1 to 4.5). Road traffic injuries will likely increase in Russia unless speeding fines are reinstated.
authors: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Kavi
authors: K
authors: Bhalla
authors: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Nino
authors: N
authors: Paichadze
authors: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Shivam
authors: S
authors: Gupta
authors: Lipetsk State University of Technology, Lipetsk, Russia.
authors: Vladimir
authors: V
authors: Kliavin
authors: Ivanovo State University of Technology, Ivanovo, Russia.
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Gritsenko
authors: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: David
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0714-9062
authors: D
authors: Bishai
authors: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Adnan A
authors: AA
authors: Hyder
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement; D011050:Policy Making; D015995:Prevalence; D011634:Public Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology