IN 2013 the number of people killed in road accidents in Sweden was 264, a record low. Although the number of cars in use in the country and the number of miles driven have both doubled since 1970, the number of road deaths has fallen by four-fifths over the same period. Sweden’s roads have become the world’s safest, with only three of every 100,000 Swedes dying on the roads each year, compared with 5.5 per 100,000 across the European Union, 11.4 in America—and 40 in the Dominican Republic, which has the world's deadliest traffic. Other places such as New York City are now trying to copy its success. How has Sweden done it? In rich countries, road deaths hit a peak in the 1970s, but have since fallen as safety measures have been introduced, both within cars themselves and on the roads they travel on. (Poor countries, by contrast, have seen an increasing death toll, as car sales have accelerated.) In 1997 the Swedish parliament wrote into law a “Vision Zero" plan, promising to eliminate road fatalities and injuries altogether. "We simply do not accept any deaths or injuries on our roads," says Hans Berg of the national transport agency. Swedes believe—and are now proving—that they can have mobility and safety at the same time.

Planning has played the biggest part in reducing accidents. Roads in Sweden are built to prioritise safety over speed or convenience. Low urban speed limits, pedestrian zones and barriers that separate cars from bicycles and oncoming traffic have helped. Building 1,500km (900 miles) of “2+1” roads—where each lane of traffic takes turns to use a middle lane for overtaking—is reckoned to have saved around 145 lives over the first decade of Vision Zero. And 12,600 safer crossings, including pedestrian bridges and zebra stripes flanked by flashing lights and protected with speed bumps, are estimated to have halved the number of pedestrian deaths over the past five years. Strict policing has also helped: less than 0.25% of drivers tested are over the alcohol limit. Road deaths of children under seven have plummeted—in 2012 only one was killed, compared with 58 in 1970.

Will the Swedes ever hit their “zero” target? Road-safety campaigners are confident that it is possible. With deaths reduced by half since 2000, they are well on their way. The next step might be to reduce human error even further, for instance by enabling cars to warn against drink-driving via built-in breathalysers. Faster implementation of new safety systems, such as warning alerts for speeding or unbuckled seatbelts, would also help. Eventually, cars seem likely to do away with drivers altogether. This may not be as far off as it sounds: several models can already drive themselves in some circumstances, such as on motorways, and self-driving cars have far fewer accidents than human-operated ones. Volvo will run a pilot programme of driverless cars in Gothenburg in 2017, in partnership with the Swedish transport ministry. Without erratic drivers, cars may finally become the safest form of transport—and Sweden will get even closer to its goal.

Dig deeper:

Why road crashes are becoming more common in the developing world (January 2014)

The risky nature of roundabouts (October 2013)

What the future of the car looks like (April 2013)

Update: This blog post has been amended to remove the news peg.