A road death toll is not inevitable. More than 500 cities worldwide with populations greater than 50,000 have achieved zero road deaths multiple times. Common actions to achieve this have included:

Redirecting Road Funding
Walking and cycling infrastructure generally gets low priority for funding. Reallocating funding from roads to walking and cycling, as done in France and Ireland, can encourage modal shift and increase road safety.

Reallocating Street Space
A disproportionate amount of road space is set aside for car travel and parking. In typical city centres around 30% of the street space is footpath, but footpaths typically accommodate about 60% of all people using the street. Reallocating street space to active modes of travel will encourage walking, cycling and use of public transport, and improve road safety.

Safer Speed Limits
Speed and speeding are crucial factors in road safety, and default 50km/h speed limits in built-up areas are unsafe for vulnerable road users. Globally, countries are adopting 30km/h speeds for side streets and urban centres, and it’s working. Reducing default speed limits to 30km/h reduces crashes, their severity and deaths, and has negligible impact on total journey times.

For more information, see:
https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-cities-have-achieved-zero-road-deaths-in-a-year-heres-how-they-did-it-229127