Brussels, 29/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - 55% fewer people were killed on European roads in 2012 than in 2001, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) confirmed on Tuesday 29 April. However, thousands of more lives could be saved by following simple rules such as always wearing a seatbelt, not drink-driving and reducing speed, the association reminds the European institutions and the member states.
“While huge progress has been made in cutting the number of people killed in cars on Europe's roads it is simply wrong that 12,000 still die every year for reasons that are mostly avoidable”, commented ETSC Executive Director Antonio Avenoso.
900 deaths could have been avoided in 2012, if 99% of the passengers involved in accidents had fastened their seat belts. Reducing speed by just one kilometre an hour could also have saved 1,300 lives in 2012 and eliminating drink-driving would have avoided another 5,600 deaths. The statistics gathered by the association show, however, that the efforts made to improve road safety by means of technology (airbags, side impact bars) is harder to measure.
On the basis of these observations, ETSC recommends that the member states tighten up their legislation around these practices, as well as rolling out the use of alcolocks (which prevent the vehicle from being started up in the event of a positive breath test) for offenders and recidivists. Better application of the European directive on infrastructure safety has also been suggested, as well as transferring the responsibility from the driver to the owner to more effectively combat speeding.
The European Commission is expected to support the notion of fitting vehicles with intelligent speed assistance, seatbelt reminders and alcolocks for professional drivers. The European infrastructure safety directive should be extended to all European roads.
Various legislative work on the use of technology in road safety is already well underway, such as the truck cabin design initiative and eCall, the automatic emergency call system in the event of a collision. The European Commission is also soon to focus its efforts on reducing the number of serious injuries. It is gathering and analysing national data this year, with a view to presenting a European strategy next year. A detailed reduction target will be laid down in 2015, taking as its model the strategy of reducing road deaths by 50% between 2011 and 2020, which has the strong support of the European countries. (MD)