In May 2005, the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers reported an approach towards road safety in Greece and internationally. About 120 people are killed each day in Europe after being involved in a road accident. Measures should be taken in order to reduce the number of people killed in the roads of the EU. 

A research titled ‘Modelling driver choices towards accident risk reduction’co-authored by G.Yannis, A.Kanellopoulou, K.Aggeloussi and D.Tsamboulas from NTUA, was published in the Journal Safety Science in April 2005. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted and the stated preference method was used to develop an explanatory model. the application of the model revealed that absolute value of additional trip time – not its percentage change – seems to play the most important role in driver choice towards accident risk reduction independently of the trip duration.

A research titled ‘Driver age and vehicle engine size effects on fault and severity in young motorcyclists accidents’ co-authored by G.Yannis, J.Gollias and E.Papadimitriou from NTUA, was published in the Journal Accident Analysis and Prevention in November 2004. Data from the national accident database of Greece were used to calculate accident severity and relative fault risk rates. Accident severity modelling revealed a significant second-order interaction between severity, driver age and two-wheel engine size. On the contrary, no second-order effects were identified in fault risk modelling. Moreover, a significant effect of driver age on accident fault risk was identified. The effect of engine size was not significant.

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Parameters affecting Greek drivers’ willingness to pay for the avoidance of road accidents’  was presented by Apostolia Salata and Emmanouil Androulidakis in October 2004. The “Stated Preference Method” was developed along with a questionnaire-based survey followed by a statistical analysis. The outcome has shown that the individual willingness to resort to paying depends on driving experience, reasons of driving outside urban areas, perceived risk, age, annual family income, number of children and reduction of the probability of being involved in a road accident.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, which emphasizes the role of public health in the prevention of road traffic injuries and covers the fundamental concepts and prerequisites of road traffic injury prevention, the intensity and impact of road traffic injuries, key determinants and risk factors, intervention strategies, and recommendations.

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Macroscopic correlation of weather conditions and accident risk and severity in the interurban road network of Greece’  was presented by Theodore Nikolopoulos in July 2004. The use of lognormal regression has been adopted and applied on the disaggregate road accident data for the period of 1992 – 1999 on the Patra – Athens – Thessaloniki – Evzoni road axis. The results suggested that low temperature leads to reduction in the number of accidents and the severity of accidents whilst it increases the risk for the 2-wheel vehicles.

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Investigation of pedestrian behavior in crossing an urban road section’   was presented by Kostantinos Makris in July 2004. The models used are Multinomial Logit Model, Discrete Choice Model and Nested Logit Model. The Nested Logit Model is the most appropriate for the description of pedestrian behavior, the application of which has led to the identification of the parameters’ impacts on the pedestrian choice.

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Time series analysis of basic road safety parameters in selected groups of European Countries’   was presented by Anastasia Pnevmatikou in July 2004. For this analysis a detailed database was developed containing disaggregate road accident data from 15 EU Member States, while another data base was developed containing aggregate accident data for the 25 EU Member States for the period 1991-2001. The results lead to the conclusion that the increased traffic participation of two-wheel motor vehicles and pedestrians in southern countries of Europe as well as the passenger car motorization increases in the east countries, have a negative impact on road safety level of these countries.