Author: agouma
A paper titled ‘Explaining the road accident risk: weather effects‘ co-authored by R.Bergel-Hayat, M.Debbarh, C.Antoniou and G.Yannis is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention Journal. This research is based on some case studies carried out within the data analysis and synthesis activities of the EU-FP6 project “SafetyNet – Building the European Road Safety Observatory”, which illustrate the use of weather variables for analysing changes in the number of road injury accidents. Time series analysis models with explanatory variables that measure the weather quantitatively were used and applied to aggregate datasets of injury accidents for France, the Netherlands and the Athens region, over periods of more than twenty years. The main results reveal significant correlations on a monthly basis between weather variables and the aggregate number of injury accidents, but the magnitude and even the sign of these correlations vary according to the type of road (motorways, rural roads or urban roads). 
A paper titled ‘Acceptability of rider assistive systems for powered two-wheelers‘ co-authored by V.Beanland, M.Lenné, E.Fuessl, M.Oberlader, S.Joshi, T.Bellet, A.Banet, L.Rößger, L.Leden, I.Spyropoulou, G.Yannis, H.Roebroeck, J.Carvalhais and G.Underwood is now published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. This study aims to understand general and system-specific factors that are likely to influence acceptability of PTW assistive systems, including barriers that may prevent uptake and proper use of systems, through a large-scale survey of European riders. The survey was available in seven languages and attracted 6297 respondents. Respondents were frequent riders, who rode primarily for leisure purposes and had high awareness of assistive systems. Overall acceptability was low, but riders who perceive greater risk in riding display higher acceptability. In general, riders believe that existing safety equipment (e.g., helmets, protective clothing) is more reliable, provides greater resistance, and is considerably cheaper than more sophisticated assistive technology.
A paper titled ‘State-space based analysis and forecasting of macroscopic road safety trends in Greece‘ co-authored by Constantinos Antoniou and George Yannis from NTUA, is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention Journal. In this paper, macroscopic road safety trends in Greece are analyzed using state-space models and data for 52 years (1960–2011). Alternative considered models are presented and discussed, including diagnostics for the assessment of their model quality and recommendations for further enrichment of this model. Important interventions were incorporated in the models developed (1986 financial crisis, 1991 old-car exchange scheme, 1996 new road fatality definition) and found statistically significant. Furthermore, the forecasting results using data up to 2008 were compared with final actual data (2009–2011) indicating that the models perform properly, even in unusual situations, like the current strong financial crisis in Greece. Forecasting results up to 2020 are also presented and compared with the forecasts of a model that explicitly considers the currently on-going recession.
A paper titled ‘Investigating the self-reported behavior of drivers and their attitudes to traffic violations‘ co-authored by Sophia Vardaki and George Yannis is published in the Journal of Safety Research. A sample of 601 Greek drivers participating at the SARTRE 4 pan-European questionnaire-based survey is exploited. The findings indicate that differences in attitudes and behaviours may be attributed to factors such as age, gender, and area of residence. The research findings also provided some insight about the current level of drivers’ attitudes to traffic violations, especially those that negatively affect traffic safety. The pattern of their views on violations may form the basis of risk behavior-related interventions tailored to the identified groups, aiming at informing, educating, and raising the awareness of the public.
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) released recently the ERF 2012 European Road Statistics. This annual publication contains all essential information on the road transport sector for the period 1990-2010 for the EU countries, but also for other countries in Europe and worldwide. These statistics concern the road network, infrastructure financing, road maintenance and investing, goods and passenger transport, road safety, taxation and environement. The road safety section contains road fatalities time series, country rankings, safety indicators and basic fatalities characteristics. 
The Road Safety Webtexts are available at the DaCoTA Road Safety Knowledge System and were developed through a peer review process by the EU co-funded research projects DaCoTA and SafetyNet, within the framework of developing and enhancing the European Road Safety Observatory. These road safety webtexts consist of comprehensive and high quality syntheses on important road safety issues, scientifically founded, easy to read and ready to use. For each subject, the information consists of an overview of the magnitude of the problem, prevalence and countermeasures followed by key bibliography references.
They cover most contemporary road safety issues:
They cover most contemporary road safety issues:
- Age groups: Children, Novice drivers, Older drivers
- Road users: Pedestrians and cyclists, Powered two wheelers
- Hazardous behavior: Driver distraction, Cell phone use while driving, Fatigue, Alcohol/drugs, Speed and speed management, Work-related road safety
- Post-crash: Post impact care, E-safety
- Road safety measures: Roads, Speed enforcement, Vehicle safety
A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Multilevel analysis of road accident characteristics in urban areas in Europe‘ was presented by Eleftheria Choustoulaki in March 2013. For this analysis a database was developed containing, road fatalities, characteristics of the driver, the road environment and the vehicle, GDP per capita, population in urban areas and vehicle fleet for 24 European countries for the year 2009. The results led to the conclusion that the use of hierarchical data structures and nested data structures, for data concerning accident in urban areas of Europe is necessary for the correct estimation of the parameters impact. From the second level analysis a differentiation in the number of fatalities in the various European urban areas was found, depending on the specific characteristics of these areas. Moreover the application of these models led to the identification of the impact of various parameters such as weather conditions, vehicle type, fatality age on the number of fatalities in the various urban areas of the European countries. 
A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Investigation of factors affecting helmet use among European motorcyclists‘ was presented by Christos Katrakazas in March 2013. Αn analysis took place, based on data from the SARTRE 4 Pan-European survey, which was conducted on a representative sample of European motorcycle drivers. Binary Logistic regression models were developed to investigate factors affecting helmet use on four types of roads (motorways, main roads between towns, country roads and built-up areas). These models were used on the samples from Greece, Europe as a whole, three groups of countries (Northwest, South and East) and three representative countries. According to the results from the models application, the main characteristic of the motorcyclists who are more likely to wear helmet, is that they fasten it frequently. On the contrary, the main factor that decreases the probability of a motorcyclist to wear helmet is helmet usage only because it is mandatory by law.
A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Correlation of traffic characteristics with road accident severity and probability‘ was presented by Apostolos Ziakopoulos in March 2013. Data concerning the road accidents occurred on Kifisias Avenue in Athens, Greece, during the period 2006 – 2010 were collected from the ELSTAT database with disaggregate data. Subsequently, traffic data (volume, speed, occupation) were obtained from the Traffic Management Centre of Athens. For the analysis, logistic regression mathematical models were developed. The application of these models indicates that road accident severity is correlated with the logarithm of traffic density, the type of vehicle and the type of accident. When data are separated in two groups of peak and off-peak hour accidents, the parameter of traffic density is the only one appearing to be statistically significant. Furthermore, traffic volume is the only parameter found with a statistically significant impact on accident probability.
A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Multilevel investigation of road accident characteristics in Greek cities‘ was presented by Dimitris Spanakis in March 2013. For this analysis, a database was developed with road accident data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority in 30 Greek cities for the period 2006-2010, which has been complemented with cities demographic data: population, vehicle fleet, and per capita income. From the results, useful conclusions are deducted for the impact of some of the examined parameters in the number of fatalities, serious and slight injuries in Greek cities, such as existence of median, operation of technical night lighting, accident type, vehicle type, casualty age and vehicle fleet. From the second level analysis it was found that there is significant variation of the impact of the vehicle fleet of each city to the number of casualties in road accidents, which was quantified.
The European Commission has published road fatalities statistics based on provisional data for 2012 showing that road fatalities across the EU have decreased by 9% in 2012. According to these statistics, 2012 saw the lowest number of people killed in road traffic in EU countries since the first data were collected. Country by country statistics show that the number of road deaths still varies greatly across the EU, from around 30 (UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark) to more than 90 (Latvia, Romania, Poland and Greece) deaths per million inhabitants.
In the respective accompanying European Commission Road Safety Vademecum, the basic safety trends, statistics and challenges in the EU 2011-2012 are highlighted.
In the respective accompanying European Commission Road Safety Vademecum, the basic safety trends, statistics and challenges in the EU 2011-2012 are highlighted. 
The Road Safety Unit of DG MOVE of the European Commission issued the Road Safety Vademecum, in order to provide an overview of the latest road safety data and the main road safety developments in the European Union. It is based on data from the EU road accident database (CARE), presenting the first provisional figures reported for 2012, where available, complemented with the final detailed data for 2011.
The European Commission published a Report on the first steps taken towards achieving reduction of serious road traffic injuries, which is one of the seven strategic objectives set by the Commission in 2010 in its road safety policy orientations for the period 2011-2020.
The document looks at what has been done so far and describes the problem of serious road traffic accidents and the challenges of the current framework. It considers the situation regarding a common definition of serious injuries, data collection methods and a possible future EU-level target. The use of an established medical classification standard is seen as preferable and the existing trauma scale ‘Maximum Abbreviated Injury Score’ (MAIS) was put forward, with serious injuries defined as those with an MAIS score of 3 or higher, as proposed by the EC research project SafetyNet and the ITF.
The European Union Road Federation and the Spanish Road Association presented on March 20th, 2013 in Brussels, the final results of the White Roads Project, the cumulative effort of 3 years of work. The underlying philosophy behind the White Roads Project is to create positive approach to road safety and focus on zero fatality roads, as opposed to the traditional practice of focusing on black spots. In total, 982 EU WhiteSpots have been identified representing 40% over the total TEN-T road network and after analysing 85,418 Kms of roads and 248,158 accidents in the EU. The main challenge was the collection and analysis of data and statistics from 27 member states.
NTUA Professor George Yannis presented “Improving data & statistics in road safety: EU perspective”.
The Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” (IOAS) organised a Workshop on Road Safety which took place in Athens on 19th March 2013. The workshop was organised under the framework of 6th Road Safety Week together with numerous activities and events all over Greece.
NTUA presentation concerned “The position of the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers on Road Safety”.
A paper titled ‘Effects of lighting on frequency and severity of road accidents‘ co-authored by George Yannis, A.Kondyli and N.Mitzalis is now published in the Proceedings of the ICE – Transport. A total of 358.485 police-recorded accidents were analysed and the proposed models were developed with the use of log-normal regression. The application of these models allowed the investigation of the influence of road lighting and other parameters such as weather conditions, accident type and vehicle type on the number of casualties and injuries. It appears that road lighting contributes to the reduction of the number of accidents and their severity and that this influence increases with the increase of the severity of the accidents. The absence of street lighting during nighttime has the highest impact on the number of fatalities and serious injuries. The results show that nighttime lighting has great potential in improving traffic safety and reducing the accident severity, especially for persons killed and seriously injured.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013, which highlights that road traffic injuries are a global health and development problem. This Status Report presents information on road safety from 182 countries, accounting for almost 99% of the world’s population. It indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably high at 1.24 million per year.
This WHO Global Status Report is accompanied by detailed background road safety data and information for in the 182 WHO countries:
– World Road Safety Basic Data
– Global Road Safety Infographics
– Road Safety Country Profiles
– European Road Safety Facts
This WHO Global Status Report is accompanied by detailed background road safety data and information for in the 182 WHO countries:
– World Road Safety Basic Data
– Global Road Safety Infographics
– Road Safety Country Profiles
– European Road Safety Facts
The World Health Organization (WHO) released tables with detailed data for specific topics by country/area.
These tables are part of the statistical annexes of the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013 and concern:
– Road traffic deaths and proportion of deaths by road user
These tables are part of the statistical annexes of the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013 and concern:
– Road traffic deaths and proportion of deaths by road user
The World Health Organization (WHO) released Infographics onkey road safety issues, with data from the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013.
These inforgraphics concern:
– road traffic injuries,
– drink-driving,
– speed,
– motorcycle helmets,
– seat belts,
– child restraints.
These inforgraphics concern:
– road traffic injuries,
– drink-driving,
– speed,
– motorcycle helmets,
– seat belts,
– child restraints.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released the European Facts and Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013, prepared by Francesco Mitis and Dinesh Sethi. This European Facts Report provides a baseline assessment to what extent countries in the 51 countries of the WHO European Region are implementing effective road safety measures to address the five key risk factors: drinking and driving, speeding, helmets, seat-belts and child restraints.
Though death rates are down, the Report shows that 55% of the European population live in countries that do not provide the protection of comprehensive road safety laws. It also highlights the importance of issues such as vehicle safety standards, road infrastructure inspections and policies on walking and cycling. In charts, maps and tables, the brief report presents information from 51 countries, covering most of the population of the Region, and providing a baseline assessment to measure progress towards the goals of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a map basedinteractive tool with the estimated traffic death rate (per 100.000 population) for each country. This tool offers to the user the option to select the estimated traffic death rates by country, by region and for different income levels.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released the Road Safety Country Profiles 2013. In these Country Profiles, summary road safety data and information is provided for each of the 182 WHO countries, concering the institutional framework, the safer roads and mobility, the safer vehicles, the safer road users, the basic road safety data and the post-crash care.
At the Road Safety Country Profile for Greece, prepared with contribution from NTUA a comprehensive picture of road safety in Greece is provided.
At the Road Safety Country Profile for Greece, prepared with contribution from NTUA a comprehensive picture of road safety in Greece is provided. 
A paper titled ‘Why do drivers exceed speed limits‘ co-authored by G.Yannis, G.Louca, S.Vardaki and G.Kanellaidis is published in the European Transport Research Review. The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between drivers’ attitude towards exceeding speed limits in different types of road and the drivers’ characteristics and self-reported speed behaviour.Loglinear analysis was used and four models were developed: for motorways, main roads, country roads and built-up area roads. The model application revealed that the dependent variable (self-reported exceeding the speed limit) is strongly dependent on the belief that other drivers exceed speed limits for all four road types.
The second United Nations Global Road Safety Week is dedicated topedestrian safety and will be held 6-12 May 2013. The Road Safety Week will draw attention to the urgent need to better protect pedestrians worldwide, generate action on the measures needed to do so, and contribute to achieving the goal of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, to save 5 million lives. Useful resources and ideas for pedestrian safety are proposed: Activities, Design Guides, Guidelines, Policy, Research Reports.
A paper titled ‘Patterns of pedestrian attitudes, perceptions and behaviour in Europe‘ co-authored by Eleonora Papadimitriou, Athanasios Theofilatos and George Yannis is just published in the Safety Science Journal. The paper aims to identify patterns of pedestrian attitudes, perceptions and behaviour in Europe, on the basis of the results of the SARTRE 4 (Social Attitudes to Road Traffic Risk in Europe) pan-European survey carried out in late 2010 and early 2011. The results revealed eight components, from which six are associated with pedestrian attitudes and two with pedestrian behaviour and were further analysed for different countries and different age and gender groups.
A paper titled ‘Critical power two wheeler driving patterns at the emergence of an incident’ co-authored by Eleni Vlahogianni, George Yannis and John Golias is now available in the Accident Analysis and Prevention Journal. The paper proposes a methodology based on Bayesian Networks for identifying the power two wheeler (PTW) driving patterns that arise at the emergence of a critical incident based on high resolution driving data (100 Hz) from a naturalistic PTW driving experiment. Results using data from one PTW driver reveal three prevailing driving actions for describing the onset of an incident and an equal number of actions that a PTW driver executes during the course of an incident to avoid a crash.
A workshop organised by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, concerning transportation during periods of economic recession, took place in Athens on February 6th, 2013. The impact of the current deep economic crisis in Greece to the various sectors of transport was presented and estimations for the future of transport in Greece were attempted. The road safety contribution of NTUA Professor George Yannis concerned the “Economic crisis and road accidents”.
Road Safety by Gender in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2012 available at the Road Safety Knowledge System of the DACOTA project within the framework of the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. In 2010, 28.759 people were killed in road traffic accidents throughout the EU, a reduction of 41% since 2001 (49.859). The number of people killed in road accidents in the EU decreased between 2001 and 2010 by 41% for males and 45% for females. There are, however, many gender-related differences in individual countries.
Road Safety of single vehicle accidents in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2012 available at the Road Safety Knowledge System of the DACOTA project within the framework of the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. Almost 130.000 people were killed in single vehicle accidents in EU within the decade 2001-2010. This number represents almost one third of all traffic accident fatalities in those countries (32%). A significant decrease of 44% in single vehicle accident fatalities is recorded during the decade 2001-2010.
Road Safety by Seasonability in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2012 available at the Road Safety Knowledge System of the DACOTA project within the framework of the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. Although the annual number of people who died in road traffic accidents in Europe has fallen over many years, the distribution of the annual number by month has scarcely changed. Motorcycling is the mode of transport with the most seasonal fatality distribution.
