News
The European Court of Justice has said the way Latvia processes data on driver penalty points is not compatible with EU data privacy laws. Latvia maintains a list of drivers and their penalty points in a database and permits access to data on individual drivers without requiring justification. That goes against the provisions of the 2018 EU General Data Protection Regulation, according to a judgement by the European Court of Justice published on 22 June. The court pointed out that the improvement of road […]
A new approach for the development of road safety education courses and materials has been set out in a report produced by experts in eleven European countries and published today by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV) and Fundación MAPFRE. The report is envisaged as a starting point for those who design, test, implement and evaluate educational activities on traffic safety and mobility, and are embarking upon the creation of new, or updating existing, activities. The new […]
Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director, ETSC Perhaps a social historian in a hundred years time, looking back over the last 18 months, will coin two new terms: BC, and AC; Before Covid and After Covid. It seems likely that the global pandemic that has altered the lives of so many the world over, will come to be seen as a turning point. In the realm of road safety, the decade until 2020 was marked in several European countries by slow progress, political neglect and inaction. […]
MEPs on the European Parliament’s transport committee have voted through a document setting out the institution’s views on the EU road safety strategy for the next ten years. The Parliament’s ‘own initiative follows the publication of the European Commission’s ten year road safety plan published back in June 2019, and an outline of planned legislative measures announced in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy published in December last year. Overall strategy MEPs have endorsed the overall EU strategy, with the headline targets to cut serious injuries […]
Covid-19 pandemic travel decrease mainly responsible for a 17% drop in road deaths last year in the EU; Deaths dropped by 37% in the last ten years – short of the EU target to cut by 50% by 2020; Greece announced as the winner of the 2021 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award – with road deaths down by 54% in ten years; 2020 a “turning point” year – future reductions in road deaths in doubt without political leadership. Brussels – There were around […]
Collisions, derailments and deaths on Europe’s railways declined by around 6% a year between 1990 and 2019 according to updated analysis by Prof. Andrew Evans of Imperial College London published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. The paper also investigates the causes of accidents. A notable finding is that the proportion of accidents caused by signals passed at danger (SPADs) fell from 40 % in 1990− 1999 to 21 % in 2010− 2019. The author attributes the improvement to the increasing deployment of train protection […]
Fatigue among professional drivers is now the norm on European roads, according to a new study by the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), the first EU-wide study in 15 years on driver fatigue in passenger and freight road transport. The report, based on a survey of around 3000 truck, bus and coach drivers found that: 60% of truck drivers and 66% of bus and coach drivers said they had to drive while fatigued on a regular basis; Nearly 800 drivers said they nearly crashed and caused […]
ETSC has welcomed endorsement by EU Member States of technical standards for Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), paving the way for the technology to be installed on all new models of vehicle sold in the European Union from next year. ETSC is calling on vehicle manufacturers to go beyond the minimum requirements of the legislation to maximise the huge potential safety benefits of the technology. By next year, the European Union will have, by far, the most stringent vehicle safety standards in the world with […]
30 km/h is the default speed limit on single-lane urban roads in Spain since 11 May, the culmination of a policy announced in changes to the Spanish general road law as far back as 2014. In 2019, official figures showed that, for the first time, the proportion of vulnerable road users killed on Spanish roads exceeded those killed in vehicles. The push to finally implement the lower speed limits in urban areas was partly influenced by that data. Collisions between vehicles and pedestrians at […]
ETSC was sorry to hear of the passing of Max Mosley earlier this month. Mr Mosley was instrumental in getting Euro NCAP, the consumer vehicle safety testing organisation, off the ground in the late nineties and acted as its first President from 1997 until 2004. Euro NCAP Secretary General Michiel van Ratingen said “With his enormous influence, commanding personality and intellect, Max knew how to turn advocacy into action. He put vehicle safety front and centre in the automotive industry and today his legacy […]
UN Global Road Safety Week : Eight organisations call on European Parliament to take action on speed
Eight organisations are asking the European Parliament to take action on speeding as part of a new strategy on road safety for the next decade. The call has come during the sixth annual UN Global Safety Week which is focused on 30 km/h zones, which can improve the safety, in particular, of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. The European Parliament will vote on a new ten-year road safety programme on 16 June. A total of 18,800 EU citizens died on Europe’s […]
Speeding (29.3%), alcohol consumption (17.4%) and drink or drug use (10.2%) are the risk factors that most influence fatal motorcycle collisions in Spain, according to a new study by Fundación MAPFRE and the Spanish Roads Association. Not wearing a helmet of the right size, wearing it unbuckled or not wearing a helmet at all are other significant factors according to the report. The study “Roadmap for the improvement of road safety in motorbikes and mopeds”, launched earlier this month, looked at data from 240 […]
The French government has recruited Michelin-starred celebrity chef and host of the French version of ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ Philippe Etchebest to front a new drink-driving campaign as bar and restaurant terraces open again across France. The humorous social media campaign and television adverts feature Etchebest telling a diner off for heading to collect his motorcycle after drinking too much at a meal with friends. Find out more about the campaign at: https://www.securite-routiere.gouv.fr/actualites/quand-tient-quelquun-le-retient-1
Motorists in the Netherlands are mainly sticking to a new 100 km/h daytime speed limit on motorways, put in place last year to combat high levels of pollution. A spokesman for the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works told media last month that data from 200 motorway sensors showed that the majority of drivers respect the limit, contrary to expectations. Another unexpected benefit has been that many drivers continue to drive more slowly even after the 19.00 deadline passes – with average speeds of 117-118 […]
A broad coalition of almost 40 organisations has called on the next Dutch government to deliver a new road safety strategy in The Netherlands. Launched on 22 April, the Verkeersveiligheidsmanifest 2.0 or Road Safety Manifesto 2.0 says the ambition for Vision Zero by 2050 is good, but interim targets are needed to help achieve that goal. The coalition calls for an 11% annual reduction in road casualties. The coalition also says that targeted action is needed on residential areas, safer vehicles, the elderly and […]
Commenting on the data on road deaths in 2020 published today by the European Commission, Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) said: “The EU has a new target for 2030 to reduce deaths and serious injuries by half. If we are to succeed this time, we need to avoid the mistakes of the past decade. The EU needs to act now, not wait years before taking action. Measures agreed in law should also not be weakened during the implementation […]
The benefits of 30 km/h urban speed limits are the theme of this year’s UN Road Safety Week which runs from 17 to 23 May. The campaign comes as the city of Paris has announced a plan to apply a city-wide default 30 km/h limit by early next year. The Brussels region introduced a similar change in January, and nearby Leuven has announced it will do the same within months. The UN says low speed streets save lives and 30 km/h (20 mph) speed […]
ETSC, together with a coalition of organisations, has written to EU Member State representatives to outline concerns over specifications for in-vehicle Electronic Data Recorders which will be mandatory in the EU starting from 2022. The issue relates to the need to record location, date and time events on the devices. Such information is critical to road safety researchers and in-depth collision investigations, which, as in the aviation sector, can be used to help prevent a similar situation occurring in the future. While robust data […]
From 1 July, supermarkets, grocery stores, wine sellers and internet shops selling alcoholic drinks are among the enterprises that must also stock and display alcohol breath tests for sale. Shops will be required to display the devices, including chemical-based tests and electronic tests, next to the largest display of alcoholic beverages, or near the till. Websites will be required to display a banner notice on the payment screen, advertising the availability of tests. A failure to comply with the new rules could lead to […]