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FIA CLUBS PLAN FOR IMPROVED ROAD SAFETY
Publication date: 15 January 2009
Brainstorming a new action plan for road safety in Europe beyond 2010
The EU plans to come up with a new European Road Safety Action Programme for 2011-2020. Ahead of final adoption, late in 2009 or early 2010, FIA clubs used the Verona International Road Safety Exhibition, as a venue for brainstorming about ways forward for road safety.
The FIA will warn decision-makers that Europe needs to update policy if it wants to keep pushing down road fatalities and injuries. The FIA European Bureau’s thematic workshop on road safety in Verona at the end of 2008 chaired by Miguel Nadal, Director of the RACC Foundation, Spain, set itself the objective of distilling a series of brainstorming sessions into the basis for a FIA road safety policy for Europe in the medium term.
Miguel Nadal stressed the importance of setting ambitious targets for death and injury reduction in any future road safety policy. “Ambitious yet ultimately realistic targets have been at the heart of much of what has been achieved in the last 10 years” he said.
Benchmarking the road safety performance of the EU’s 27 member states across the different road safety pillars (human behaviour, vehicle performance and the road infrastructure), better and more harmonised statistics, effective stakeholder alliances, increased deployment of eSafety technologies and efficient enforcement of traffic laws were all considered key elements of any future policy. Many of these areas are already the focus of FIA clubs’ attention either via their policy work or practical implementation initiatives.
Updating policy for Tor Stenmark from the Norwegian Automobile Federation (NAF) will also means greater European harmonisation of laws on road construction and maintenance. “We suggest that international laws and norms are established so that roads become safer and more predictable. Road owners must be responsible the same way as the driver,” said Stenmark. At a Norwegian level, he would like to see a national traffic safety group established with the necessary resources and powers.
A similar idea was expressed by Luca Pascotto of Italian club ACI. He called for Italy to create a National Road Safety Authority to coordinate specific intervention and to manage the financial resources. He wants to see permanent investment in road safety. Urgent action is also needed, according to Pascotto, in specific areas such as traffic education programmes in schools, driving license legislation reform and road safety management improvements.
Damir Novak of Croatian automobile club HAK sees positive developments at national level in the past decade. Whilst Croatia has seen the number of cars increase from 1 142 200 in 1997 to just under 1 950 000 in 2007, road fatalities decreased from 714 to 619 over the same period. Novak, though, notes that much still has to be done to reach European goals. Blocking the way to safer roads are insufficient financial resources for road safety, the increased proportion of transit and tourist traffic as well as inadequate road designs. Some of HAK's proposals include TV broadcasts with themes on road safety and finally implementing traffic education in kindergartens, primary and high schools.
Both Fiona Bewers from the Caravan Club and Neil Greig from IAM noted that the UK can point to impressive results. Road deaths in 2007 dipped under 3000 for the first time reaching 2946. Other targets were also met, notably a 38% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents as well as a 57% cent reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured. But the UK has also seen its rate of improvement slow down. Drink driving remains an issue with 500 still dying every year. Death rates for young drivers are also not going down as fast as other groups. Motorcycling is still too dangerous. “In setting strategy for 2011 to 2020, the IAM would like to see separate targets for known high risk groups and situations such as youth, rural road users, motorcyclists users, professional and older drivers,” said Greig from IAM.
Mario Rohracher from Austrian club ÖAMTC noted that the European Commission currently identifies only four offences that pose a serious threat to safety (speeding, drink-driving, non-use of seat belts and failing to stop at a red traffic light). Rohracher says other offences must also be considered like over-fatigue, keeping the safety distance, reckless overtaking, distracted driving, and driving under the influence drugs. “All these are points that have to be worked on,” Rohracher said.
Any strategy targeting 2020 should also take more account of the implementation of technological developments such as daytime running lights with sensor control, seat belt reminders, a fire protection package, alco-locks, efficient cross-border enforcement as well as adequate education and information campaigns for car drivers and other road users. Rohracher also wants to see more emphasis on “responsibility” and “appropriate speed”. “A speed limit of 80 km would be far too high in the event of fog. Another element is concentrating on those roads and vehicles which are most problematic. “Highways are becoming less of a problem. A lot of safety measures have already been implemented. But we have to do more about safety on rural roads. Safety for bicycles and motorbikes is also problematic,” he said.
Lluis Puerto from RACC wants new ambitious targets in the fourth road safety action plan for 2010-2020. Like Rohracher he points to technological developments with e-safety in passenger vehicles, ITS infrastructure including emergency call (E-call) and intelligent speed adaptation (ISA). Other improvements can come from better cross-border enforcement, massive infrastructure upgrade programmes, research and development into modal shift. Policy-makers also need to tackle driver distraction and fatigue as well as ensure a higher involvement of certain stakeholders such as local authorities and private companies.
“Good policy also needs a good understanding of the situation and its evolution. And a good understanding requires good data as well as correct data analysis,” said Olivier Lenz from the FIA European bureau. At the workshop, he pointed to the inherent incompatibility of national accident data when making comparative analyses at international level. National data sets are also integrated in their original national structure and definitions into the EU's Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury (CARE).
Off the back of this workshop the Brussels office is currently busy drawing up a comprehensive road safety policy for beyond 2010 to be addressed in the first instance to the European Commission.
For more information contact: FIA European Bureau
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