Publications
Independent transport accident investigations derive their value and significance to society from the fact that they are the only kind of investigation that set themselves the sole task of systematically establishing precisely the truth and the facts of what has taken place with the aim of learning to improve safety and helping to prevent recurrences. In doing so, they can also help to assure society that the occurrence of such events is being addressed. In practice, however, there are many differences in how investigations […]
19 March 2019 Dear representatives of the Council, the Romanian Presidency, the European Parliament and the Commission, On 25 March, the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission will take part in the trilogue negotiations on the package of vehicle safety and pedestrian protection measures known as the General Safety Regulation. These measures represent a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to dramatically reduce the scourge of death and serious injury on Europe’s roads. Not since the introduction of mandatory seatbelt laws, has such a change […]
Speed is a major factor in overall road safety performance. Excessive and inappropriate speed is accountable for about one third of fatal collisions and is an aggravating factor in most collisions. 2,100 lives could be saved each year if the average speed dropped by only 1 km/h on all roads across the EU. Speeding on different types of road In the EU, 37% of all road deaths occur on urban roads. Among the countries that monitor levels of speed compliance on urban roads countrywide, […]
Dear Member of the European Parliament committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, On 21 February, you and your colleagues on the IMCO committee of the European Parliament will vote on the package of vehicle safety and pedestrian protection measures known as the General Safety Regulation. It is not an overstatement to say that these measures represent a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to dramatically reduce the scourge of death and serious injury on Europe’s roads. Not since the introduction of mandatory seatbelt laws, has such […]
Letter: ACEA’s attempts to weaken the European Commission’s proposals on new vehicle safety measures
A group of safety experts, consumer groups, transport police, environmental campaigners, city authorities, cyclists and road collision victims have written today to members of the European Parliament’s Committees on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Transport (TRAN) to raise concerns over the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA)’s attempts to weaken the European Commission’s proposals on new vehicle safety measures and to ask MEPs to pass the legislation as soon as possible, to maximise its life-saving potential. Download the full letter (pdf) For more […]
On 17 May 2018 the European Commission adopted a strategy paper on automated driving . The paper was published as part of the EC’s third mobility package, which also includes new vehicle safety standards, updated rules on road infrastructure safety management and a strategic action plan on road safety. This short briefing reflects ETSC’s first analysis of the paper with suggestions for areas that need further development. ETSC warmly welcomes, and fully agree with the Commission’s acknowledgement that when it comes to automated mobility, “only […]
On 17 May 2018, the European Commission published a large package of transport policy proposals known as the ‘Third Mobility Package’ including some very significant measures to improve road safety in the European Union. 25,300 people died on EU roads in 2017, a figure that has hardly budged in four years. The road safety package should help substantially reduce this figure if combined with efforts at national and local level. The main elements include: Safer cars, vans, lorries and buses The EU has the […]
Every day in the European Union, more than thirty children are seriously injured and two are killed in road traffic collisions. More than 8,100 have died over the last decade. The impact of these deaths and life-changing injuries on families and communities is immeasurable. But they also carry an economic cost, which diverts resources that could have been used for education, improving health or other social goods. Children are particularly vulnerable road users. They lack experience and are less visible to other road users […]
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 […]
A third of road deaths in the EU are caused by collisions that involve a single motorised vehicle where the driver, rider and/or passengers are killed but no other road users are involved. These single vehicle collisions (SVCs), and how to prevent them occurring, are the subject of this report. Nearly 7300 road users lost their lives in 2015 in SVCs in the EU. Around 94,800 people have died in such collisions in the last ten years. Across the EU, the total number of […]
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 […]
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 […]
Since 2010 the number of people seriously injured in the EU has been reduced by just 1.6%, compared to an 18% decrease in the number of road deaths in the same group of countries. The majority of countries have reduced road deaths at a faster pace than seriously injured since 2001. In 2014, more than 203,500 people were recorded by the police as seriously injured on the roads in the EU, representing an increase of almost 3% compared to 2013. There is strong political […]
In 2014 in Europe 25,964 people died in road traffic and 203,500 were seriously injured. However, the long term safety trend has been positive, especially so for car occupants who have benefitted more than other road users from road safety measures adopted over the past decade. There were 12,345 car occupant deaths in Europe in 2012 compared with 27,700 in 2001, a cut of 55%. Other road user deaths fell by 41% over the same period. Although the reduction in deaths may be a […]
What is TTIP? The European Union and the United States are currently negotiating a joint trade agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) The EU’s stated goals[1] are: opening up the US to EU firms helping cut red tape that firms face when exporting setting new rules to make it easier and fairer to export, import and invest overseas. What has TTIP got to do with vehicle safety? The car industry is hoping to be one of the biggest beneficiaries from […]
Motorways are the safest roads by design and regulation. Nevertheless in 2013, around 1,900 people were killed on the motorway network in the EU, representing 7% of all road deaths. Nearly 27,500 people have died on motorways in the EU in the last ten years 2004 to 2013. Nevertheless progress has been made. Across the EU the number of people killed on motorways was cut by 49% between 2004 and 2013 (compared to 44% on the rest of the road network). Over the same […]
Around 240,000 car occupants were killed in road collisions in the EU in the years 2001-2012. There were 12,345 deaths in 2012 compared with 27,700 in 2001 (1), a cut of 55%. Deaths of car occupants were cut by more than the overall death rate (49%) and substantially more than the rate for other road users (41%). Car occupants have therefore benefitted more than other road users from road safety measures adopted over the past decade. This is not surprising, as many of those […]
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a trade agreement that is currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. It aims to remove trade barriers in a wide range of economic sectors including passenger cars. The EU and the U.S. also want to tackle barriers such as differences in technical regulations, standards and approval procedures. In this briefing, ETSC stresses that, it is essential that common vehicle safety standards are moved up, not down. ETSC emphasises that there is […]
This 3rd PIN Report provides an overview of European countries’ performance in four areas of road safety. It builds on the 1st and 2nd Road Safety PIN Reports published in June 2007 and 2008 respectively. It shows how countries have progressed in reducing road deaths between 2001 and 2008 and how they perform in protecting a particular vulnerable group: children. It also gives an overview of the striking disparities in the market penetration of safe cars and outlines the role of European capitals as […]
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