On 14 April, MEP Elena Kountoura (The Left, Greece) will present her draft resolution on the European Commission’s European road safety policy framework 2021-2030 to the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport.
In particular, the Commission committed itself to working towards halving the number of deaths and serious injuries on Europe’s roads within the next 10 years and to reducing the number of deaths to zero by 2050. According to Kountoura’s figures, 23,000 deaths and 120,000 serious injuries were recorded in the EU in 2019 alone.
To achieve its ambitions, the Commission’s 2021-2030 policy framework focuses on vehicle safety, infrastructure safety, safe use of the roads, and post-accident care to avoid serious injury or death, even if collisions continue to occur. The MEP welcomed this approach, but she also put forward some complementary initiatives.
For example, she calls on the Commission to tighten the screws on drink-driving and speeding: alcohol is thought to be involved in 25% of all road deaths, and speed is a key factor in around 30% of fatal accidents.
Elena Kountoura calls for a zero tolerance limit on drink-driving to be recommended by the EU and calls on the Commission to advocate the use of “safe speed limits” – 30 km/h in residential areas and areas frequented by many cyclists and pedestrians, for example.
Furthermore, she calls on the Commission to consider making first-aid training compulsory in the revision of the driving licence directive (see EUROPE 12430/12) and advocates a European framework on access to in-vehicle data for the purposes of accident research, obviously in line with the GDPR.
New practices. The draft report also calls for a new regulatory framework for automated cars to ensure their safety. The new European mobility strategy (see EUROPE 12619/12) expects large-scale deployment of automated mobility by 2030.
Elena Kountoura also calls for the development of guidelines and a European-type approval framework for motorised personal mobility devices: electric scooters, Segways, etc.
Only a few States currently have legislation in this area. The lack of harmonisation in the EU could “make it difficult for visitors to comply with local rules”, says Kountoura.
Among the trends that have not yet been taken into account, she also notes the expansion of the home delivery sector in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: the draft resolution therefore calls for, among other things, a regulation on the working hours of van drivers and recommendations on the safety of delivery personnel.
To view the full project: https://bit.ly/2QM5J0o (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)