Press releases
Lithuania is the winner of this year’s European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Award, in recognition of major improvements in road safety over the last decade. Out of the European countries tracked by ETSC, Lithuania was the only EU country to halve road deaths between 2011 and 2021. Among non-EU European countries, only Norway did better with a reduction of 52%. The ETSC panel of experts […]
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has welcomed new recommendations from the European Commission to local, regional and national authorities to reduce speeds on motorways and in urban areas. The announcement is part of a wide-ranging package of energy saving measures designed to help reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas, and support existing EU policies on climate change. ETSC says lower speeds always reduce the risk of collisions occurring, […]
Dutch-inspired improvements to cycling infrastructure in Lithuania, harmonised day and night-time urban speed limits in Poland and major new national road safety strategies in Greece and Portugal are some of the changes inspired by the EU-funded Road Safety Exchange project, which wraps up with a final event today in Brussels. The project, which was funded by the European Parliament and managed by the European Transport Safety Council on behalf of […]
The European Commission has published figures for road deaths in the 27 EU Member States in 2021, showing that 19 800 people were killed in a road crash last year. This represents an increase of 5% compared to 2020 – the year of Covid-19 lockdowns, and a 13% reduction compared to 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Commenting on the new figures, Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the European […]
Significant weaknesses in the enforcement of road safety rules are holding back progress on reducing road deaths in Europe, according to a new report from the European Transport Safety Council. The report examines the state of enforcement of speed limits and seatbelt wearing as well as rules on drink-driving and use of mobile devices at the wheel between 2010 and 2019 across Europe. Ellen Townsend, ETSC’s policy director, commented: “Thousands […]
ETSC is calling on the European Union to improve the safety of young drivers through changes to driver licensing, among other measures, as new data show young road users, aged 15 to 30, have come to represent a quarter of all road deaths. In a report published today, ETSC says that, in 2019, 5,182 young people were killed in road collisions in the 25 EU countries for which figures are […]
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, […]
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 […]
The current EU approach to assessing whether drivers are medically fit to hold a licence needs substantial revision, according to a new report by ETSC. The report examines the current state of play in European countries regarding the assessment of medical fitness to drive, with reference to current EU rules. The EU is currently reviewing the Directive on driver licensing and a revised legal proposal is expected in 2022. The […]
ETSC, together with a coalition of organisations, has written to all 27 EU Transport Ministers and Industry Ministers expressing concern that vital new EU vehicle safety standards, set to come into force from 2022, could be set for a severe blow. The European Union agreed last year that all new cars, vans, lorries and buses should be fitted as standard with a range of new vehicle safety technologies, starting in […]
Preliminary data from 25 EU Member States show an average 36% drop in road deaths in April 2020 compared to the average of the same month in the previous three years, according to a new report by the European Transport Safety Council. The highest reduction in road deaths was recorded in Italy (84%), followed by Belgium, Spain, France and Greece with decreases of over 59%. But reductions in traffic did […]
Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Portugal have reduced road deaths the most since 2010 Estonia to receive the 2020 European Transport Safety Council Road Safety Performance Index Award Road deaths in Malta, the Netherlands and the UK were higher in 2019 than in 2010 EU “almost certain to miss” 2020 target to halve road deaths 17 June 2020 Brussels – The Baltic States, together with Greece and Portugal, were the […]
A quarter (25%) of road deaths in the European Union are the consequence of a collision involving a goods vehicle, according to the European Transport Safety Council, authors of a new report on the safety of goods transport by road. According to the new analysis, 3310 people lost their lives in police-reported road collisions involving a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) of 3.5 tonnes or above in the 27 countries of […]
At least 51,300 pedestrians and 19,450 cyclists were killed on EU roads between 2010 and 2018 Cyclist deaths in the EU are declining eight times more slowly than deaths of motor vehicle occupants Deaths of cyclists in the EU have fallen eight times more slowly than deaths of motor vehicle occupants since 2010, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), authors of a new report. (1) ETSC is calling […]
The European Union should introduce a zero-tolerance drink-driving limit in 2020 as part of a package of measures to help prevent up to 5,000 alcohol-linked road deaths every year, according to the European Transport Safety Council, authors of a new report. The EU has recently set a target to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the road by half by 2030 (1). A quarter of the 25,000 EU road deaths […]
Commenting on the Dutch government’s plans to decrease the speed limit on motorways during daytime from 130 km/h to 100 km/h, Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council commented: “Higher speeds are always associated with a higher frequency of collisions and more severe consequences. So a reduction in speeds on Dutch motorways will save lives. That’s to be welcomed, especially as motorway deaths in the Netherlands reached […]
Ireland takes home 2019 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Award New European figures show numbers killed on EU roads last year fell by just 1% Call for new European Parliament and Commission to step up progress on road safety Ireland is the winner of this year’s European Transport Safety Council Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) award. The annual award is presented to a European country that has demonstrated continued […]
Tackling urban road safety must be a key priority for the European Union and European countries over the next decade, according to the European Transport Safety Council, authors of a new report. **SCROLL DOWN FOR FRENCH AND GERMAN VERSIONS According to the data revealed today, road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. (1) Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists […]
The European Parliament has given the green light to new minimum EU vehicle safety requirements that will come into force from 2022. The vote by the full parliament, at its last session of this mandate, follows a provisional deal reached by the EU institutions last month. According to the final deal on the legislation, new cars, vans, lorries and buses sold in Europe will be fitted as standard with a […]
The European Commission has published the 2018 figures for road deaths and serious injuries in the European Union. Commenting on the new figures, Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) said: “It’s very disappointing that road deaths in the EU hardly declined in 2018. This is now the fifth year in a row that hardly any progress has been made. However there are reasons to be […]