One of the aims of the SUNflower project is to identify a series of suitable indicators that together can be regarded as a 'footprint' of the safety performance of a country. The first SUNflower report has demonstrated that such a comparison cannot be very meaningful if it is limited to few headline numbers. A wide range of indicators was produced in this report both in terms of overall national traffic safety (traffic safety outcome), and key safety policies (safety policy indicators). Furthermore, safety performance indicators have to be developed or identified with a stronge reference to the case study topics in the extended SUN study, the South/Central studies and developments in the SafetyNet project (http://safetynet.swov.nl/). Using these indicators and by extending the analysis to six other countries, a more robust basis for the footprint methodology will be established.

The thinking beyond the methodological approach is based on a road safety target hierarchy of 'social costs - final outcomes (number killed or injured) - intermediate outcomes (performance indicators) - programmes/measures - structure/culture' as shown in the diagram below that is adapted from the consultation document on the Road Safety Strategy 2010 of New Zealand (LTSA,2000).

The system components and their developments over time of the SUN+6 countries must be compared, which implies the three-dimensional comparison of the pyramidal outcome hierarchy (vertical dimension) of the system components in each of the countries (horizontal dimension) over time (time dimension).

Target hierarchy for road safety at a disaggregate level