Brussels, 27/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Experts from the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) met up on Tuesday 21-Thursday 23 April in Jûrmala (Latvia). They underlined four work priorities to improve road safety in Europe.
In order to improve road safety, Aidan Reid, the president of the organisation, said that they should focus on the following priorities: reduce the number of speeding cases; prevent driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs; promote seat belt use not only for the persons sitting in front, but also for passengers in the back; eradicate divided attention while driving - when the driver is doing other things, for example, using smart devices, thus not being able to pay full attention to the road. The European Council for Transport Safety will be organising a seminar where it will propose a target for cutting the number of road accidents by 2020 by 50%.
Participants also decided to reiterate the importance of the Speed Marathon. This European-wide road speed control exercise was held in 22 countries from Thursday 16 to Friday 17 April. According to provisional results from the 17 participating countries, just over 4 million vehicles were subject to speed controls and a total of 122,500 vehicles exceeded the speed limit. TISPOL explained that this exercise will be repeated and will not just focus on speed but also other road offences. (Jean Comte)