The European Commission has recently released a Report on Event Data Recorders (EDR),  prepared by the Transport Research Laboratory. The objective of this study was to assist the European Commission in deciding whether the fitting  of EDR in all vehicles or certain categories of vehicles could result in an improvement of road safety or have other possible consequences that would justify the costs associated with the adoption of EU legislative measures. The study aimed to quantify the costs and benefits for heavy goods vehicles, light goods vehicles, buses and coaches, and passenger cars (for private and commercial use). According to this study, the benefits of EDRs are consistently documented in terms of road safety, vehicle design, accidentology and accident reconstruction and legal accident proceedings. 

According to ELSTAT data, 29% of road fatalities are motorcycle riders, whereas 39% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. 

According to ELSTAT data, the majority of road accidents and fatalities occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. However, accident severity is higher in rainy weatherand other weather conditions especially outside built up areas.  

According to ELSTAT data, most fatalities occur at daytime and at night with good street lighting inside built-up area, or with no street lighting outside built-up area. Accident severity is increased at night with no street lighting or poor street lighting. 

According to ELSTAT data, come off the road and at angle collisions are the most common accident types outside built-up areas. At angle collisions and pedestrian accidents, side impact and rear end collisions are the most common accident types inside built-up areas. Accident severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas and almost 5 time higher at head-on collisions or when a pedestrian is involved. 

According to ELSTAT data, among the 988 persons killed in Greece in 2012: 489 were outside built-up areas and 499 were inside built-up areas. 52% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than three quarters of road accidents and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 

According to ELSTAT data, 988 persons were killed in Greece: 651 drivers, 167 passengers and 170 pedestrians.  Male drivers account for 66% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers account for almost 50% of male driver fatalities and older people account for almost 50% of pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7,6 fatalities per 100 accidents) and younger persons (4,0 fatalities per 100 accidents). 

Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991 – 2012 are summarised in a comprehensive Table (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2001, there are more than 1.000 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data an important decrease in road fatalities for young people is observed during the last decade, as well as a spectacular decrease in fatalities outside urban areas and in the number of people killed in accidents with Heavy Goods Vehicles. On the contrary fatalities decrease during the last decade is limited for people killed in motorways, non resident drivers and women drivers. 

The 34th Annual Conference of the US National Academy of Neuropsychology took place in Puerto Rico, on 12-15 November 2014. This year’s NAN conference theme was New Horizons in Neuropsychology Research and Practice. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Neurocognitive correlates of driving behaviour

 Differential simulator driving patterns among community-dwelling healthy and mildly neurologicaly impaired adults during driver distraction conditions’

The 19th Meeting of the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF) took place in Cologne, on 7-8 November 2014. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 ROSEE – Road safety in South East European regions: Final recommendations on investments and interventions

 An overview on the effect of weather and traffic conditions on road safety

The International Transport Forum celebrated the 25th anniversary of IRTAD. For 25 years, IRTAD has worked to improve traffic safety data and support evidence based decision making to enable more effective road safety strategies and save lives. Founded with 12 member countries as a database, IRTAD also soon brought together road safety experts and statisticians from research institutes, national administrations, international organisations, universities, automobile associations and car manufacturers. Today, IRTAD has 70 members from 35 countries. 

The AFB 20 (2) Roadside Safety Design Seminar was organised by the European Union Road Federation (ERF) in cooperation with the International Road Federation and the Transportation Research Board and took place with great success on 5 November 2014 in Brussels. The conference was attended by more than 100 road safety experts and stakeholders from around the globe to gather and exchange information concerning the latest trends and developments in the area ofpassive safety and road infrastructure safety design. All presentations are now available. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Effectiveness of Roadside Safety Measures‘ 

A road safety conference, organised by the Panhellenic Federation of driving instructors, took place with great success in Crete on 1-2 November 2014. The conference focuses on the driving instuctor’s role on road safety.   

The International Conference on Healthy Cities organised by the World Health Organisation, took place in Athens on 22-25 October 2014. This year’s international conference marked 25 years of implementation of the Healthy Cities programme in the European region of the WHO and the launch of the sixth 5-year phase, 2014-2018. It also marked the implementation of thenew WHO agenda, “Health 2020”. Road safety was addressed on several occasions in this international conference. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Traffic safety in urban mobility policy‘ 

ACEM has recently published ‘The safe ride to the future‘, its new road safety strategy to further improve safety levels for motorcyclists in Europe. The document has been presented at the 10th International Motorcycle Conference in Köln (Germany). As part of this new strategy, the motorcycle industry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). With regard to training of riders, ACEM and the German Road Safety Council (DVR) have joined forces to promote high quality voluntary post-license training schemes across the EU through a DVR-ACEM Quality Seal. ACEM will also organise a series of workshops in different European countries to identify and promote measures to improve road safety at national, regional and local levels. 

A book titled ‘My friend the Βicycleman‘ has recently been published by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks as a tool to improve children’s education on road safety and prepare the future drivers. The book aims to help children understand and apply the basic rules of safe and responsible driving during riding their bike in a simple and fun way. 

A driving instructors retraining seminar organised by the Athens Business Chamber and the Citizen’s Movement, took place in Athens on 18 October 2014. The seminar aimed to improve drivers’ knowledge on certain topics, to highlight some aspects of safe driving and to develop the communication between driver instructors and new drivers.  

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Functional traffic accident statistics in Greece‘ 

A regional Road Safety Workshop, organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Government of the Republic of Serbia (Ministry of Construction, Traffic and Infrastructure (MCTI), the Road Traffic Safety Agency (RTSA) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in partnership with the South-East Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO), took place in Belgrade on 15-16 October 2014. The workshop brought together a wide range of road safety stakeholders and interested parties from the public and private sectors, including decision makers, planning authorities, and international organizations. The Workshop focused primarily on good practices and experiences on Road Safety Managementin South-East Europe and the Western Balkans. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Road Safety Management in Greece

 Road Safety Management in South East Europe

 Different forms of inter-agency coordination their potential benefits and risks

A European conference on work-related road safety organised by ETSC took place in Brussels on 13 October 2014. The conference covered the business case for work-related road safety as well as a section on safety issues for van operators. ETSC’s PRAISE project‘s aim is to promote best practice in order to help employers secure high road safety standards for their employees. PRAISE is co-ordinated by the ETSC secretariat with the support of Fundación MAPFRE, the German Road Safety Council (DVR), the Belgian Road Safety Institute (IBSR)and the Dräger Foundation. The Hellenic Air Force was awarded as the Public Authority engaged on work related road safety.

According to the ELSTAT provisional data for 2013, road fatalities in Greece have decreased by 40% since 2009 , whereas serious injuries decreased by 22%. The rate fatalities per number of vehicles has decreased the same period by 42%. The recent deep economic crisis is a major factor which might explain this significant decrease in road fatalities in Greece. 

The American Neurological Association‘s 2014 Annual Meeting, took place in Baltimore on 12-14 October 2014. This year’s Annual Meeting offered scientific symposia on new sensation in the afferent limb, diseases of the synapse, brain initiative, expanded views on neurodegeneration, and neurological challenges of current chronic or recurring viral infections, plus Special Interest Group Symposia on 17 different subspecialties.Behaviour of drivers with cognitive impairements was addressed on several occasions in this ANA Annual Meeting.  

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Compensatory strategies in the driving behavior of MCI, AD, and PD patients: Preliminary results from a large driving simulation experiment with the use of distraction

 Exploring the capacity of neurological and neuropsychological measures to predict driving performance in individuals with MCI

Reducing road fatalities and serious injuries by helping governments to implement a “safe system” approach in road safety is the objective of a new ITF Working Group launched on October 1st, 2014 in Paris. The “Working Group on the Implementation of a Safe System Approach” will develop actionable policy guidance for countries who aim to improve their road safety performance and in the long run eliminate road traffic as a cause of death or serious injuries. The group’s work programme will build on a previous ITF report, “Towards Zero: Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe Systems Approach“, published in 2008. The working group comprises 28 road safety experts from 23 countries (including Prof. George Yannis from Greece), the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP) and the FIA Foundation. 

A document on the potential road safety improvements offered by in-vehicle safety systems and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technologies has been released by the European Commission. The aim of this document is to provide a view on the potential of these technologies to prevent accident or reduce their consequences and on how to best promote the deployment of those seen to be most effective.

A Road Safety Workshop was organised by the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA in the framework of the ROSEE project of the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme (SEE) in Athens, on 2 October 2014. Results achieved within the ROSEE project were presented in combination with valuable input from the members of the Greek National Advisory Group which was implemented within the project. This workshop was a great opportunity for knowledge exchange between the various Greek road safety stakeholders on key Road Safety issues in Greece and in the South East European Region in relation toroad safety policies, road infrastructure safety and road user behaviour. More than 80 people attended the Workshop including representatives of competent Ministries, road operators, NGOs and other road safety stakeholders. All presentations are available at the ROSEE project website. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Proposals for Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe‘ 

The Conference “Road Safety: risk mapping, infrastructures and behaviour” organised by the projects ROSEE and SENSOR in the framework of the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme (SEE), took place in Ljubljana on 25 September 2014. All results achieved by both ROSEE and SENSOR projects were presented. This conference was a precious opportunity to get updated and discuss with international experts about the major Road Safety issues faced in the South East Region both from Road Safety Audit and Inspections to road users’ behaviour perspectives. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Proposals for Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe‘ 

The 2nd Intenational Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia, organised by OMICS Group International took place in Valencia on 23-25 September 2014. The Conference aimed at bringing together the professors, researchers, and students in all areas of Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia and to provide an international forum for the dissemination of original research results, new ideas and practical development experiences which concentrate on both theory and practices, with a special session on Geriatrics, Care Practice and  Cognitive Disorder including impact on driving performance. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Speed and accident rates in MCI and mild AD patients: preliminary results from a large driving simulation experiment‘ 

A Workshop titled “Road Safety – Road Accidents” organized by the Police Department of Kalamata took place on September 17th, at the Cultural Center of Kalamata, within the framework of the European Mobility Week (16-22 September 2014). This event aimed to increase road safety awareness of the local communities given that road accident causes are known and can be prevented. More than 150 people attended the Workshop including local and regional representatives, police officials and other road safety stakeholders. Panagiotis Papantoniou, NTUA research engineer and PhD Candidate presented key policies and specific measures to reduce road accidents at the Messinia Region.