An Integrated Multilevel and Multisectoral Public Health and Transportation Engineering Approach for Addressing Road Traffic Safety: A Discursive Paper

Road traffic injuries remain a leading cause of preventable death and disability worldwide, with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable and underserved populations. While transportation safety efforts have traditionally focused on engineering countermeasures and behavioral modification, persistent inequities in crash risk and injury outcomes indicate the need for a broader systems-based approach. This discursive paper applies the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Research Framework to conceptualize road traffic safety across multiple domains, i.e., biological, behavioral, physical/built environment, sociocultural environment, and health care system, and levels of influence including individual, interpersonal, community, and societal factors. By integrating transportation engineering strategies such as Safe System design, roadway countermeasures, and vehicle technologies with public health perspectives on injury prevention and health equity, the paper illustrates how structural conditions shape crash occurrence, injury severity, and post-crash outcomes. The proposed multilevel and multisectoral framework emphasizes cross-sector collaboration among engineers, public health professionals, policymakers, and community stakeholders to reduce preventable injury and advance equity. This integrated model offers a conceptual foundation for future empirical research, policy development, and implementation strategies aimed at achieving population-level improvements in road safety.