Palavras-chave
Road safety
Crash prevention
Road safety policy
Systematic literature review
Como Citar
Resumo
Road traffic crashes remain among the leading causes of premature death in Brazil and worldwide, disproportionately affecting children, adolescents, and young adults. Given the structural limitations of policies that rely exclusively on enforcement and penalties, traffic safety education has been identified by the international literature and by Brazilian regulatory frameworks as an essential, permanent pillar of road safety, alongside engineering and enforcement. This article aims to synthesize the scientific evidence produced between 2021 and 2026 on traffic safety awareness strategies targeting schools, workplaces, and communities, identifying the state of the art regarding the effectiveness of different educational methods. A systematic literature review was conducted in the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, and Google Scholar databases, supplemented by technical and regulatory documents from Brazilian traffic authorities, following steps informed by the PRISMA guidelines. The results show that traffic safety education programs for children and adolescents produce consistent gains in knowledge, attitudes, and safe behavior, particularly when they combine audiovisual resources, simulation, and virtual reality with interactive methods and peer involvement; that stand-alone mass media campaigns have modest, short-lived effects, becoming more robust when combined with enforcement and formal education; and that collaboration among government agencies, schools, businesses, and highway concessionaires expands the reach, sustainability, and credibility of educational initiatives, as illustrated by Brazilian experiences tied to the National Traffic Week and the Federal Highway Police's Highway Cinema. The article concludes that the effectiveness of traffic safety education as a permanent prevention policy depends on continuity across the life course, systematic outcome evaluation, and cross-sector governance with clear indicators — elements that remain underdeveloped in Brazilian national policy, as recent audits of the National Plan for the Reduction of Traffic Deaths and Injuries (Pnatrans) have pointed out.
Referências
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