Toward Zero Death

The philosophy that one traffic-related death is unacceptable leads the Toward Zero Death (TZD) Approach. Since it was first adopted in Sweden in 1997, the idea has grown into a culture among many transportation departments.

Minnesota adopted the Toward Zero Death Approach in 2003 and has since become the cornerstone of traffic safety in Minnesota. TZD looks to reduce traffic deaths, injuries, and crashes. There are many traffic effective traffic safety programs out there and TZD looks to tie all these programs together into a single initiative to promote greater success in Minnesota. Data is collected to target weak areas and to provide proven countermeasure to those areas.

The TZD team partners with the communities and corridor groups to advance traffic safety in defined areas. Materials, technical assistance, and guidance is provided by TZD to local groups that commit to reducing crashes and the fatalities and injuries that result from those crashes.