Skip to main content

European safety drive

The European Commission is keen to boost road safety and analysis of road accident statistics. A key component of this move will be improving transparency over the safety of road infrastructure, in accordance with their obligations under European law. So far 11 European member states have been warned by the European Commission to be more open about the safety on infrastructure networks.
April 25, 2012 Read time: 1 min
RSSThe 1690 European Commission is keen to boost road safety and analysis of road accident statistics. A key component of this move will be improving transparency over the safety of road infrastructure, in accordance with their obligations under European law. So far 11 European member states have been warned by the European Commission to be more open about the safety on infrastructure networks. The European Commission has presented its case to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia and calling for improvements to safety on the trans-European road network. A directive on road safety was required to be fully transposed into national law by December 2010. Nations will have two months to adopt appropriate procedures to improve the safety of its road network, including road safety audits, infrastructure-linked accident rate evaluations, and safety rankings. If the countries do not take action, they will be referred to the EU Court of Justice.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Include ITS in policy decisions from the start, not as an afterthought
    February 1, 2012
    DG TREN's Fotis Karamitsos, on why the European Commission's new ITS Action Plan is looking to the past for future direction. The European Commission's (EC's) new Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe, which was announced as 2008 drew to a close, intends that transport and travel become 'cleaner; more efficient, including energy efficient; and safer and more secure'. At first sight, that wording might be interpreted as marking a significant policy shift within Europe, wit
  • Workzone safety can be economically viable
    October 24, 2014
    David Crawford looks how workzone safety can be ‘economically viable’. Highway maintenance is one of the most dangerous construction industry occupations in Europe. Research from The Netherlands on fatal crashes indicates that the risk facing road workzone operatives is ‘significantly higher’ than that for the general construction workforce. A survey carried out by the Highways Agency, which runs the UK’s motorway and trunk road network, has suggested that 20% of road workers have suffered injuries from pa
  • EU presents a strategy towards C-ITS
    December 1, 2016
    The European Commission has adopted a European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), a milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility. The Strategy will make it possible to deploy vehicles that can communicate with each other and the infrastructure on EU roads as of 2019. Digital connectivity is expected to significantly improve road safety, traffic efficiency and comfort of driving, while boosting the market of cooperative, connected and automated driving and th
  • China aims to boost road safety with drink driving crackdown
    April 25, 2012
    The authorities in China claim that tough new laws against drink driving are already having a major benefit for road safety, according to the official news agency Xinhua. The latest official statistics reveal a sharp drop in road accidents caused by drink driving over a recent long holiday weekend. The newly amended law imposes harsher punishments on drunk drivers, with police also taking a tough line on enforcement.