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In 1990, Brandenburg became a new federal state of Germany. The road network was quite comprehensive but the quality of the roads, of the cars and the experience of car drivers were poor. It was then decided to rapidly improve the surfaces of the carriageways poorly maintained during the previous decades. This happened to be a crucial mistake as Brandenburg faced, in the early nineties, an accident rate of 36 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants higher than ever registered in Germany. This article describes the successful actions led to reduce the number of traffic victims to a fatality rate of 6.6 within 20 years.