Speeding is considered as the most important road crash factor. It is a key factor in around 30% of fatal road crashes. Some 40-50% of drivers drive faster than the recommended speed limit and 10-20% exceed the limit by more than 10kph. Not only does speeding make you more likely to crash, it also increases the likelihood of severe injuries or death from a crash (European Commission, 2019). Speeding encompasses: Excessive speed (driving above the speed limit) and Inappropriate speed (driving too fast for the conditions, but within the limits). The main effects of speeding are:

• Excessive or inappropriate speed contributes to about one third of all fatal crashes
• The level of exhaust emissions, fuel consumption and noise increase with speed
• Speed effects the quality of life of urban residents, especially the safe mobility of VRU

Speeding leads to a greater impact in the event of a crash, which results in more serious injuries and fatalities. Moreover, when driving at higher speeds there is significantly less time to process information and react on time, and the braking distance is also longer, which reduces the possibility of avoiding a collision.

 Higher speed = higher probability of a crash

• Longer distance travelled during driver perception / reaction time
• Longer distance travelled during emergency braking
• Driver more likely to lose control
• Less time to take preventive action
• Driver errors magnified
• Other road users more likely to misjudge speed

 Higher speed = more serious injuries

• Injury results from transfer of energy from moving vehicle to bodily structures
• Kinetic energy relative to mass and velocity
• Higher speed = greater kinetic energy
• Greater kinetic energy = greater injury
• Unprotected road users are most vulnerable

 Key Recommendations

 There is a clear need for drivers to improve their speeding behaviour. How?

1. Slow down! Obey speed limits at all times!
2. In urban areas, slow down even more! There are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists which are vulnerable road users.
3. Remember that speed limits are a limit, not a target speed!
4. If you feel pressured by other road users to drive faster than the stated speed limit, move over, go to the right and allow them to pass!
5. Keep right lanes when you are slower than other vehicles!
6. Coordinate with traffic by adjusting your speed; Don’t drive either too faster or too slower than the other vehicles.
7. Be alert! Keep the appropriate speed for the current road and traffic conditions (work-zones, adverse weather conditions etc.).
8. Give speeding drivers plenty of space. Speeding drivers may lose control of their vehicle more easily.
9. Adjust your attitude! Avoid aggressive driving!
10. Plan better and allow more time for your trips, in order not to race the clock!

Seat belts are an effective way of reducing the number or road deaths and severe road injuries in crashes. According to the 2018 WHO Global status report on road safety, wearing a seat-belt reduces the risk of a fatality among front seat passengers by 40-50% and among rear-seat passengers by 25-75%. Failure to wear a seat belt is the 2^nd biggest cause of road death, after speeding but ahead of drink-driving. European Commission suggests that action targeting the use of seat belts could save up to 7.300 lives a year in the EU.

Effects of wearing a seat belt

• Not wearing a seat belt can result in being totally ejected from the vehicle in a crash, which is almost always deadly.
• The air bag can seriously injure or even kill you if you’re not wearing a seat belt. Air bags are designed to work with seat belts, not replace.

Why not wearing a seat-belt is dangerous?

Passengers who are not wearing seat-belts at the time of a collision account for the majority of occupant road traffic fatalities. Seat belts are the best defense against impaired, aggressive, and distracted drivers. Being buckled up during a crash helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle.

Guidelines to buckle up safely

• The lap belt and shoulder belt are secured across the pelvis and rib cage, which are better able to withstand crash forces than other parts of your body.
• Place the shoulder belt across the middle of your chest and away from your neck.
• The lap belt rests across your hips, not your stomach.
• NEVER put the shoulder belt behind your back or under an arm.

Key Recommendations

 There is a clear need for drivers to remember to wear their seat belt. How?

1. Buckle up! No excuses…
2. Listen! Most cars signal the driver and passengers to buckle up when the key is put into the ignition
3. You must wear a seat belt either you are not going far or not traveling fast, most fatal crashes happen within 25 miles of home at speeds of less than 60 km/h.
4. If you drive an older or classic car with lap belts only, check with your vehicle manufacturer about how to retrofit your car with today’s safer lap/shoulder belts.

Distracted drivers aren’t just a threat to themselves: they’re a danger to everyone else on the road. The mobile phone is symbolic of ‘distraction in traffic’. Texting (and navigating on the phone) is the most alarming distraction. Since our mental capacity is limited, we can only pay attention to a part of our environment. A road user should first and foremost be focused on traffic. Distracted driving encompasses: Reading and sending text messages and typing or updating a social network site

 Effects of distracted driving

• Worse braking reaction time
• Worse reaction to traffic signals
• Difficulty in keeping the correct lane
• Difficulty in keeping the correct headway distance
• Drivers zigzag more

Why distracted driving is dangerous?

Drivers using mobile phones are approximately 4 times more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers not using a mobile phone. Using a cell phone while driving creates enormous potential for deaths and injuries on roads. Distraction affects a number of essential aspects of driving skills. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 80kph, that’s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.

More texting = higher probability of a crash

• Driver more likely to lose control
• Less time to take preventive action
• Less accurately reaction to deceleration by the driver in front
• Difficulty in keeping their lane

Key Recommendations

 There is a clear need for drivers to avoid using their mobile phones while driving. How?

1. Turn your cell on “silent” (and keep vibrate off)!
2. Keep the phone out of sight and reach! Having the volume and vibrate feature off may not be enough.
3. Completely turn your cell phone off!
4. Pull over and stop if it is important to answer a call!
5. Parents lead by example – It’s not an age or experience issue, it is a safety and distracted driving issue!

Driving under the influence of alcohol and any psychoactive substance or drug increases the risk of a crash that results in death or serious injuries. About 25% of all road fatalities in Europe are alcohol related whereas about only 1% of all kilometres driven in Europe are driven by drivers with 0.5 g/l alcohol in their blood or more [1]. If the proportion of 25% applies worldwide and is based on 1,25 million road fatalities per year, the annual number of alcohol-related road deaths will be around 312.500.

Approximately 1 in every 10 seriously injured drivers is estimated to have used drugs; about half of these casualties have also used alcohol [2]. As the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in the driver increases, the crash rate also rises.  Compared to a sober driver the crash rate of a driver with a BAC of 0.8 g/l (still the legal limit in 3 of 25 EU-member states) is 2.7 times that of sober drivers. When a driver has a BAC of 1.5 g/l his crash rate is 22 times that of a sober driver while, the crash rate for fatal crashes is about 200 times that of sober drivers.

Effects of alcohol or drugs on driving

• Divided attention. Research suggests that when asked to divide their attention between two tasks, participants tend to focus on one task at the expense of the other.
• Far less muscle control than normal
• Clear deterioration of reaction time and control
• Reduced response to emergency driving situations
• Poor coordination
• Reduced ability to maintain lane position
• Accelerate or brake appropriately
• Reduced information processing capability (e.g., signal detection, visual search)

Why the driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is dangerous?

Driving a vehicle while impaired is a dangerous crime. Those who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, whether obtained legally or illegally, pose a danger to themselves, their passengers, and other road users. Most of the skills related to tracking performance, reaction times, and visual detection, already begin to deteriorate at a BAC below 0.5 g/l [3].

Key Recommendations

There is a clear need to drive sober. How?

1. Designate a sober driver, call a cab, or use a ride-hailing service!
2. Wait an hour or two! Time is the only way to sober up. Your blood alcohol level will go down roughly the equivalent of one drink an hour.
3. Don’t let friends get behind the wheel if they’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol
4. Always wear your seat belt! It’s your best defense against impaired drivers
5. If you see an impaired driver on the road, contact local law enforcement. Your actions could help save someone’s life!

The concepts of “fatigue”, “sleepiness” and “drowsiness” are often used interchangeably. Sleepiness is an aspect of fatigue which is perhaps easiest to define. Sleepiness can be defined as the neurobiological need to sleep[1], resulting from physiological wake and sleep drives[2]. Driving fatigue is associated with increased crash risk which often results from a combination of biological, lifestyle-related and work-related factors. Crashes in which driver fatigue plays a role are not only a matter of having spent too long behind the wheel; fatigue can also be caused by too little sleep, stress, or the time of the day.

• Fatigue has a physical and a mental aspect.
• Fatigue is associated with both reduced capacity to perform and motivation to perform.
• Although sleepiness and fatigue may have different causes, their effects on performance and motivation are similar, a decrease in mental and physical functioning.
• When fatigued, persons may alternate normal functioning with short lapses in performance (i.e. not noticing or responding to signals). The long term result of fatigue is an increasing variability of performance.

Why fatigue is dangerous?

Driving fatigue is a major factor in 10-20% of road crashes. A person who drives after being awake for 17 hours has a risk of crashing equivalent to being at the level of 0.05 blood alcohol concentration (i.e. twice the normal risk).

 More tired/sleepy = higher probability of a crash

• Increase of the task demands (e.g. driving faster so that a ‘new’ sensation of driving raises adrenaline and attention levels)
• Reduction of the task demands (e.g. increase of the safety margins by slowing down or using longer headways)
• Driver more likely to lose control
• Less time to take preventive action
• Less accurately reaction to deceleration by the driver in front
• Difficulty in keeping the vehicle in the lane

Key Recommendations

 There is a clear need for drivers to avoid driving fatigue. How?

1. Avoid driving at times when you would normally be asleep!
2. The moment fatigue sets in, do not start driving or continue driving!
3. Take a nap or ask a passenger to take over the driving task!
4. Allow fresh air into the car (by opening the window or switching on the air conditioning)
5. Talk to a passenger!
6. Stop driving for some food or exercise!
7. Turn up the volume of the music!

[1] NCSCR/NHTSA Expert panel on driver fatigue and sleepiness (2001) Drowsy driving and automobile crashes

[2] Johns, M.W. (2000) A sleep physiologist’s view of drowsy driving. Transportation Research Part F, 3, pp. 241-249

Weather is an environmental risk factor that affects collision and casualty rates. Weather conditions partly determine the road conditions and the driver’s behaviour. Bad weather encompasses: fog or mist, rain, snow, sleet, hail, strong wind, and high temperatures. In Europe, 1,4% of total fatalities are due to fog or mist, 8,6% by rain, 0,8% by snow, sleet or hail, 0,6% by strong wind (European Commission – Annual Accident Report, 2018).

Why driving in bad weather is dangerous?

Effects of bad weather:

• Vehicle contact with the road. The more rain, snow, or hail falls, the less the friction of the road surface (lower ability to brake and control the vehicle).
• Reduction in visibility of the road and other road users, because of the fog or the reflection of the sunlight by the wet road surface
• Behavioural changes such as more cautious driving
• Gusts of wind can push relatively high vehicles
• Emotions rise with the temperature, people are more irritable to others, they get tired, lose their concentration, and their reaction time increases

Key Recommendations

There is a clear need for drivers to improve their behaviour in bad weather conditions. How?

Fog

1. Maintain a significant distance between you and the car in front of you!
2. Use your turn signals early! Give cars behind you plenty of notice that you’ll be slowing down to make a turn.
3. Use the white line on the right side of the road! This will help guide you and keep you in your lane.
4. Turn on your fog lights both for the front and the rear side of your vehicle.

Rain

1. Keep a good distance from the car in front of you! Having to slam on your brakes can result in skidding. It takes longer to stop when driving in wet weather.
2. Turn on your headlights! They will not only help you see, but will make sure you’re visible to other drivers.
3. Drive in the middle lanes! Water is more likely to pool on the outer edges of the road.
4. Try and avoid puddles. Driving over puddles of water can cause your car to hydroplane out of control. It’s helpful to drive in the tracks of the car in front of you.
5. Defog your windows! Use the front and rear defrosters to maximize visibility.

Snow/Ice

1. Consider snow tires! Tires are an essential factor in winter driving because they keep your car firmly connected to the road.
2. Know your brakes! Your car will perform differently in the snow than it would on a dry road.
3. Keep Rolling! Don’t stop on ice or snow if you can avoid it
4. Take corners slowly! Give yourself plenty of time to slow down before turning.
5. Accelerate gradually! Your tires are likely to spin in place if you try to accelerate too quickly.
6. Beware of black ice! Black ice – a thin layer of transparent ice on a roadway – can cause your car to spin out and you can quickly lose control.