Consultation on a road safety action plan across the EU, June 2001

The main points for inclusion are:

Accuracy of recording to give same starting point

Provision of resources to allow proper enforcement, i.e. sufficient number of traffic police officers (these numbers are going down in Britain), cameras, etc.

Use of evidence based measures, not only socially/politically acceptable ones

Post crash response must be included wherever appropriate

The expertise of victims should be used nationally and locally

Q1       Use of phones while driving, also teletexting and use of other in-car gadgets

            Distraction through very loud music

Q2       The condition of good cooperation would be that each stakeholder would have full responsibility/accountability for their own area of work

Comments to Q3&4

A pre-requisite is the same starting point for all countries in all key areas:

We should have a mechanism which would ensure that all EU countries record road casualties accurately, so that there is proper information of the casualty scale and a genuine comparison of like with like - Hospital data should be used everywhere or it should be made mandatory for the police to record every personal injury crash

Laws should be harmonised

There should be a mandatory minimum number of traffic police officers per given number of people, to ensure enforcement

The most effective road safety measures should be identified from international evidence based research

Before adopting/promoting new measures, trials should be conducted

Any rules and guidelines should have widest dissemination

Post crash treatment across Europe should be improved

Q4

Definition of fatality - 30 days after crash agreed by most states, but is less for others

Due to medical advance this time should be extended - proposed 1 yar

Without strict enforcement of guidelines and laws, targets will remain ineffective

Q5

EU laws for commercial vehicles should do away with exemptions - eg regarding commercial vehicles fitted with tachographs - all should be fitted with tachographs and these should be used whenever vehicle is driven - and drivers' hours - these should be strictly enforced.

There should be legislation across Europe prohibiting the use of phones while driving

Q6

Black box technology to be used increasingly, starting with all police vehicles

Money raised by local authorities to be ring-fenced for road safety

On the spot fines across all EU countries

Vehicle inspection at road-side to be carried out by technically qualified traffic police

EU should restrict the manufacture of cars designed to drive at illegal speeds

Q7

Regular conference at the European Parliament for all stakeholders, including victim representatives, similar to the conference held in October 1998

Similar conference at national level

Q8

Incentives:

Lower insurance premium for non-involvement in crashes