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Sweden has long been a forerunner in the fight against drink driving. In 1999 the country was one of the first EU member states to introduce alcohol interlocks as part of rehabilitation programmes for drink drivers. In 2013, Sweden went a step further and ran a pilot project to introduce a fast-moving automated ‘Alco Gate’ at the Port of Gothenburg. This briefing explores the background to the project and its results, which could have positive future implications for drink driving policy in Sweden and […]
26,300 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2015 compared to 25,970 in 2014, representing an increase of 1% and the second consecutive poor year for road safety. In 2014, more than 135,000 people were recorded as seriously injured. However, the long term safety trend has been positive, especially so for car occupants who have benefited more than other road users from road safety measures adopted over the past decade. The figures of the past years would have been significantly higher had it […]
Final Project Conference, Brussels, Thon Hotel EU, 10 May 2017, 09:00 – 14:30 The ECOROADS (Effective and Coordinated Road Infrastructure Safety Operations) team has the pleasure to announce the project’s final conference presenting the results of this two-year Horizon 2020-funded research project. In the presence of the European Commission (DG MOVE) and European road research stakeholders, this conference will present the results of the tunnel testing sites as well as the final guidelines. Download the agenda. For directions to the venue, click here. Download […]
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) welcomes the initiative of the European Commission to review the legislation on the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users (VRUs). It is of paramount importance that the EU takes steps to improve the safety of this often neglected category of road users. In 2013, 5542 pedestrians and 2002 cyclists were killed on European Union roads. As more car occupant deaths are prevented every year due to better in-vehicle protection, the decrease in the number of vulnerable […]
ETSC is calling on the European Commission to come forward with a long-awaited target to reduce serious road injuries. The European Commission, for the first time, published a figure in April for the number of people seriously injured on Europe’s roads : 135,000 in 2014. According to ETSC data, the numbers have declined much more slowly than the number of deaths in recent years. ETSC has long argued for the need for a separate pan-European target to reduce serious road injuries, to complement the […]
The European Road Safety Summer School 2016 is an initiative of the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV), the Transportation Research Institute(IMOB) of Hasselt University, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the Polis network of European cities and regions cooperating for innovative transport solutions. It will take place from 22 to 26 August 2016 in Mechelen (Brussels North area – 15 minutes by train from Brussels Airport and central Brussels). Find out more at the event website.
QEII Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, SW1P 3EE From local to global, safer vehicles will play a major role in delivering road safety objectives. The London safer lorry scheme may be extended, the UK Government intends to promote uptake of safer cars, 2016 sees reviews of European vehicle safety regulations, and NCAP schemes across the world are gearing up to deliver the UN Sustainable Development road safety goals. This major conference features national and international experts on vehicle safety representing key stakeholders. It highlights innovation and […]
Since 2010, the European Commission has been committed to introducing an EU-wide strategic target to reduce serious road traffic injuries. In 2013, the crucial common definition of serious injuries to be recorded and tracked was approved. A target was finally expected to be set in the first half of 2015, having been promised ‘shortly’ in a Commission press release of 24 March and by Commissioner Bulc’s presentation of the EC Work Programme at the Transport Committee of the European Parliament on 6 May. On […]
Renaissance Hotel, Brussels ETSC and the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge organised a lunch debate on cycling safety in light of the EU’s forthcoming cycling strategy. Cyclists represent 8% of all road deaths and big disparities exist between countries. Moreover, since 2010 the reduction in the number of cyclist deaths has slowed down markedly. The safety of unprotected road users should therefore receive special attention from policymakers at the national and European levels. As active travel is being encouraged for reasons of health and environment, […]
TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network, is planning a new road safety campaign day known as Project EDWARD – European Day Without A Road Death. The organisation hopes to interest policymakers, road safety professionals, politicians, police officers, manufacturers and the general public to raise awareness of the 2020 target to reduce road deaths. There is already support from all 30 TISPOL member countries, and a growing number of road safety organisations, including ETSC have pledged to work with TISPOL to promote the message as […]
The Road Safety Authority (RSA), in partnership with the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), hosted the iSafer Conference at Dublin Castle on Thursday 28 April 2016. The event aimed to broaden knowledge and awareness of Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) as a tool to combat speeding. The objective of the ETSC iSafer campaign is to contribute to reducing speed-related road deaths and injuries through the identification and promotion of best practice. The project includes a special focus on ISA and promoting its use at European and […]
Automated driving technologies are already preventing collisions and deaths on our roads. Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is now mandatory on all new cars sold in Europe. Automated Emergency Braking (AEB), Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and lane-keeping systems are increasingly commonplace. All these systems use technology to compensate, to some extent, for human error, taking some control away from the driver under certain circumstances. But we now stand on the verge of something much bigger. Fully autonomous vehicles may, in the near future, transform our […]
EU rules on safety approvals for new cars will need to be revised to include ‘driving tests’ for automated and fully-autonomous vehicles according to a new report from the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). ETSC says the EU is far from answering the many research and regulatory questions that must be considered before automated and autonomous vehicles can be put on sale. The report says the priority must be ensuring that the promised safety benefits are delivered in real world driving. One challenge will […]
Two New York State politicians, together with a road safety advocacy organisation are aiming to introduce a new law requiring police to scan drivers’ mobile phones for possible activity in the run up to collisions. The proposed legislation is linked to development of technology nicknamed a ‘textalyser’ which claims to be able to scan a mobile device for recent activity such as calling or texting, without releasing personal information. The system could be carried out by police at the crash site, much as drivers […]
The European Commission, for the first time, published a figure last month for the number of people seriously injured on Europe’s roads : 135,000 in 2014. The release of the data required the adoption, by all EU member states, of a standardised medical definition of what constitutes a serious road injury, as well as a standardised way of collecting the statistics. ETSC welcomed this long overdue and positive step in the right direction, but says a long term target and specific measures to reduce […]
Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director There was no email version, not even an email address to write to or website to check for updates. None of the articles were tweeted or shared on facebook as Mark Zuckerberg was only ten years old. Google was not yet a verb. Browsing through the first edition of ETSC’s Safety Monitor newsletter this week felt like examining a document from another age. It was published in December 1994, around eighteen months after ETSC was founded ‘in response to the […]
All road collisions that result in death or serious injury will be treated by police as an indictable offence, and those convicted will be subject to much tougher sentencing after a new ‘road murder’ law was passed by the Italian Senate last month. The new law, which has taken several years to pass all the necessary legal hurdles, could mean 12 years in prison for drivers found guilty of killing while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The first arrest under the new […]
Case study: Transport for London ETSC’s PRAISE project addresses the safety aspects of driving at work and driving to work. Its aim is to promote best practice in order to help employers secure high road safety standards for their employees. In this interview, Glen Davies, Programme Manager, Freight & Fleet Programmes at Transport for London discusses the organisation’s approach to integrating road risk management in its supply chain for public works and contracting services. FACTFILE Company: Transport for London (2015 ETSC PRAISE Awards – Public authority […]
Small city cars classified as heavy quadricycles still have ‘fundamental’ safety problems according to Euro NCAP. The organisation says safety equipment is sparsely fitted to these vehicles and the results show little improvement since the last tests performed in 2014. The crash test results of the selected vehicles – Aixam Crossover GTR, Bajaj Qute, Chatenet CH30 and Microcar M.GO Family – show the standard of protection offered to the driver is still generally very low, leading to serious risks in collisions with other vehicles […]
German state transport ministers have approved legal changes that will allow for easier application of 30km/h limits near schools and hospitals. The change, announced one year ago by transport minister Alexander Dobrindt, means local authorities no longer need to show that the road in question is already a hotspot for collisions. Meanwhile, in Ireland, Moyagh Murdock, head of the Road Safety Authority, an ETSC member, has said 30km/h should become the default speed limit in Irish towns and cities.