Brussels, 20/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - It is a mixed assessment of EU road safety that the European Commission will present on Wednesday. While there has been a general improvement in road safety, this improvement is not enough to reach the target, set in 2001, of reducing by half the numbers killed on Europe's roads by 2010. In its communication which forms a mid-term review of its 2003 policy plan to improve road safety, the Commission does not make any new legislative proposals. It does, however, say that it will study additional measures as part of the mid-term review of the transport White Paper, due at the end of April and touching on all areas: safety of road infrastructure, driver behaviour and vehicle technology. This communication will be debated at the informal meeting of Transport Ministers in Bregenz on 2 and 3 March.
In its White Paper, published in 2001, the European Commission set itself the target of reducing the number of people killed on EU roads by half, from 50,000 to 25,000, by 2010. In 2005, there were some 41,600 deaths, a reduction of 17.5%. At this rate, the EU could still have 32,500 road deaths in 2010 and not the maximum of 25,000 aimed at. Commission data show different developments for different categories of road users and vehicles. Firstly, the number of motor cyclists killed rose by 5.6% between 2000 and 2003, while, over the same period, the total number of deaths dropped by 12%. The situation is particularly worrying in Italy, Belgium, Sweden and the United Kingdom, where the numbers of motor cyclists killed rose by 40%, 39%, 21% and 15% respectively. Secondly, young people between 18 and 25 form 21% of all those killed in 2003 and four out of five within this category were young men. Thirdly, cyclists, with 2,000 killed, and pedestrians, 5,400 killed, are especially vulnerable, and, among pedestrians, the over 65 year olds make up 27% of all those killed. Fourthly, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are involved in only 6% of accidents, but in 16% of fatal accidents. On the other hand, the involvement of HGVs in accidents is dropping faster than the number of accidents in general. Fifthly, accidents outside of built-up areas are the most serious: although representing only 28% of road accidents, they account for 60% of victims. Accidents in built-up areas make up 67% of the number of accidents, but 31% of victims. Motorway accidents make up 5% of the total, and 9% of those killed. The communication notes that, in terms of road safety, the new Member States performed less well than the EU pre-2004 average. There are great differences within the 25: the numbers killed annually per million, inhabitants vary from 50-60 (Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) to more than 200 (Latvia and Lithuania), with the EU-25 average at 95. Since 2001, eleven Member States have registered a faster than average reduction in numbers killed (Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Spain, France Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Sweden), six have shown limited progress (Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Slovakia, Finland and the United Kingdom), five little progress (Czech Republic, Ireland, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia) and the situation has worsened in Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta.
Numerous measures have been taken to improve road safety, from legislation to support for research and awareness-raising campaigns. Improvements are needed, however, to put an end to the impunity of bad drivers. Currently, a large number of road offences committed by non-residents are not pursued because of a systematic lack of cooperation between administrative and police authorities of Member States, says the Commission, which considers that this shows that even the best results suffer from deficiencies because of a lack of cross-border cooperation on checks and sanctions. The European dimension of the problem is obvious, says the Commission, and must be tackled. Protection for vulnerable road users involved in collisions with motor vehicles could also be improved. Similarly with road infrastructure, where legislation is currently limited to Directive 2004/54/EC, which came after a number of serious fires in the Mont Blanc, Tauern and Saint Gothard tunnels in 1999 and 2001. Initiatives have to be taken to improve safety for motor cyclists and moped riders, because, given the present tendency, a situation can be envisaged where, in 2010, the number of road deaths will have been cut by half, but one person out of three killed will be a motor cyclist, instead of one person in six today. Industry, therefore, should take other initiatives, including in technological development. The continued failure of riders of two-wheeled vehicles to wear a helmet remains a matter of concern for the Commission.