Science and public health principles used to reduce road deaths.

An editorial in a previous issue of this journal falsely claims that the US government's efforts to reduce road fatalities are not based on science. It says that, as a result, the United States has fallen behind other countries in road death prevention. A large body of research and evaluation informed federal and state safety programs from the outset. Evans's comparisons of death trends among countries without adjustment for changes in relevant risk factors or specification of the injury reduction policies among the countries tell us nothing about the causes of the declines or the effects of specific ameliorative efforts.