Brussels, 17/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - Drinking and driving do not mix, points out the new report from the European Transport Safety Committee, presented on Tuesday at the European Parliament. The report reveals that after speeding, and driving without a seat belt, drinking alcohol is the third main reason for causing road accidents. In an effort to rectify this, participants at the report presentation proposed to toughen up preventive legislation for young and inexperienced drivers, launch awareness campaigns among the young, and increase road checks and alcohol breathalyser tests.
Carried out as part of the Road Safety Performance Indicator programme, the report creates a league table for countries based on the level of their road safety performance. Based on the results of road checks carried out between 1997-2005, this classification highlights three groups of countries. The Czech Republic, Germany and Poland were all able to cut the number of fatal accidents caused by alcohol. This was mainly due to imposing accepted levels of alcohol when driving to zero or below the European average of 0.05 g/l (the Commission's recommendation of 17 January 2001 on the permitted level of alcohol in the blood), as well as increasing road controls, tougher sentencing for offences and awareness campaigns. The first group therefore contains the Czech Republic (where the number of fatal accidents declined over the last year by 11.3%), Germany (6.2%), Poland (5.6%), the Netherlands, Latvia, Austria and Greece. The second group contains countries where this decline is slower or even non-existent because of the well-rooted tradition of alcohol consumption (Spain) or because of less effective measures (Hungary). Lithuania, Finland, Spain, and the United Kingdom are also part of the second group. The third group brings together countries that were unable to provide data (Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Sweden).
As part of the preparations for the 1st European Road Safety Day (27 April), which will focus on young drivers, proposals from conference participants come just at the right time. Renate Sommer (EPP-ED, Germany), speaking on behalf of the parliamentary transport committee, was in favour of identifying at-risk groups for whom alcohol consumption rates should be zero (for technical reasons, the committee instead proposed alcohol rates of BAC 0.02 g/l) for young people, beginner drivers and those transporting dangerous materials. Ms Sommer also underlined the need to harmonise restrictive measures at a European level, as well as checks, in order to facilitate cross-border follow-up of those who have committed offences. According to the ETSC report, following the differences over how to apply the measures, the numbers killed on the road each year, due to alcohol consumption, varies between 32% in Slovakia and 6% in Austria. The Czech MEP Petr Duchon (EPP-ED) highlighted the symbolic meaning, “especially in Eastern states”, of the zero alcohol rates. Based on his country's legislation, he proposed to take action on three fronts: to penalise dangerous drivers more stiffly; to encourage drivers who have not committed offences; and to send insurance companies all available data so that they can calculate bonuses on the quality of driving or possibly refuse them if the policyholders are known to be bad drivers. (aby)