Response to the European Commission’s ‘First Milestone towards a Serious Injury Strategy’

The European Commission presented its ‘First Milestone towards a Serious Injury Strategy’ on the 19th of March 2013. In this paper ETSC sets out its response. Part I lays out the policy framework in which this new initiative is taking shape. Part II looks at the proposed new definition for Serious Injury and how the data will be collected as well as its important use to inform decision makers about impact of their measures. Part III looks at measures that are needed to reduce serious injuries on Europe’s roads. Part IV outlines some special areas of priority that have not been touched upon in great detail by the European Commission and that ETSC believes deserve more attention.

The European Commission’s ‘First Milestone towards a Serious Injury Strategy’ presents an overview of progress so far and looks at next steps towards coming up with a ‘Serious Injury Strategy’. ETSC commends the European Commission for announcing a common definition of serious injuries in road traffic collisions: improving the quality of data about seriously injured survivors of road collisions will help in designing more effective safety policies. ETSC is now hopeful that a target to reduce serious injury will follow suit quickly and that concrete measures will follow without delay.