According to ELSTAT final road crash data for 2018, come off the road and at angle collisions are the two most common crash types outside built-up areas. Pedestrian accidents, at angle collisions, come off the road and collisions with stopped vehicle are the most common crashes types inside built-up areas. Crash severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas at pedestrian accidents. 
The European Commission has recently published the “Study on the feasibility, costs and benefits of retrofitting advanced driver assistance to improve road safety“, prepared by VTT and Ecorys. This study examined the technical feasibility of various retrofit ADAS systems (voluntarily or mandatory installable) while demonstrated the potential safety impacts of retrofitting the vehicle fleet and presented a cost-benefit assessment for the measures. Detection and warning of pedestrians and cyclists nearby the front or side of the vehicle proved having the highest benefit-cost ratio, as addressing the Vulnerable Road Users safety, being the key current road safety problem. 
The World Health Organisation (WHO) published recently the “European Regional Status Report on Road Safety 2019” with the active contribution of NTUA. The European Regional Status Report on Road Safety describes the progress made by Governments in the Region. This Report demonstrates that over 221 people are killed on roads every day in the WHO European Region while thousands more are injured or disabled, with long-lasting effects. People from the eastern part of our Region bear the highest burden of road-traffic mortality and morbidity.
According to ELSTAT data for 2018, the majority of road accidents and fatalities in Greece occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. However, both road accidents and fatalities share outside built-up areas is much higher during rainy conditions than normal conditions of clear sky. Furthermore, accident severity is increased by almost 50% during raining. 
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT data, among the 700 persons killed in Greece in 2018: 333 were outside built-up areas and 367 were inside built-up areas. 51% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than 80% of road accidents and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 700 persons were killed in Greece in 2018: 450 drivers, 104 passengers and 146 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 60% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 15% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 66% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7.5 fatalities per 100 accidents) and young people 15-24 years old (3.3 fatalities per 100 accidents). 
The impressive decrease in road fatality figures in Greece of the last decade paused this year (2019), according to recently published ELSTAT provisional data. Compared to 2018 figures, in 2019 there has been no improvement in fatalities. However, during the last decade, Greece presents the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 44% and a decrease of serious injuries of 63%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 44% since 2010. It is noted that 2019 and 2015, two election years in Greece, together with 2016, were the only years since 2004 without significant decrease of road fatalities. 
According to the latest ELSTAT data for 2018, most road fatalities in Greece 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 3 to 5 times more at night with no street lighting, but also at night accidents outside built-up areas. 
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 38th PIN Flash Report “How safe is walking and cycling in Europe?“, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report examines the most recent available data on the current safety levels of cycling and walking across the EU and other countries that provide data to ETSC as part of its Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, and it concludes with recommendations for action at EU. It is highlighted that for a serious shift to walking and cycling, particularly for local journeys in densely populated areas, the very design of urban spaces will need to change. Motorised traffic will need to slow down when it comes into spaces used by vulnerable road users; separated infrastructure and smart intersection design will be essential; school streets without cars may need to become the norm. 
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the full version of the Road Safety Annual Report 2019, which provides an overview of road safety performance for 41 countries. The report outlines the most recent road safety developments and provides comparative data for the main road safety indicators. It also offers detailed analysis by road user, age group and types of road. It describes the crash data collection process in IRTAD countries, the road safety strategies and targets in place and information on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour.
Since 55 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2019 (data 2012-2017) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. There is highest response rate in years, covering more countries than ever before and a brand new design and layout.
The EU-funded EuroMed Transport Support Project (EuroMed) and World Health Organisation (WHO) released a joint Report titled: “Understanding and bridging the differences between country-reported and WHO-estimated road traffic fatality data“. It focuses on the considerable challenges in collecting complete, accurate and reliable road traffic fatality data that some countries worldwide are facing. Moreover, it attempts to explain the disparity between WHO estimates and country-reported data on road traffic fatality and provide suggestions on what steps countries can take to strengthen their data systems.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 13th edition of PIN Annual Report , with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2019 Annual PIN Conference which took place with great success on 19 June, 2019 in Brussels. According to this PIN Report, the new European figures show that the number of persons killed last year fell by just 1% and the EU target to cut road deaths in half over the decade to 2020 looks well out of reach.
Ireland was the winner of this year’s ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) award, being the second safest EU Member State in 2018, in terms of road mortality (road deaths per million inhabitants) and having moved up five places in the ranking of EU countries since 2010 when it held the 7th place.
A paper titled “Safety Culture among Private and Professional Drivers in Norway and Greece: Examining the Influence of National Road Safety Culture” authored by Tor-Olav Nævestad, Alexandra Laiou, Ross O. Phillips, Torkel Bjørnskau and George Yannis is now published in Safety Journal. This study investigates road safety culture (RSC) as an explanation for this discrepancy by: (1) Comparing the road safety behaviours among professional and private drivers in Norway and Greece, (2) Examining factors influencing road safety behaviours, focusing especially on national road safety culture, and (3) Examining the influence of road safety behaviours and other factors (e.g., demographic and work-related variables) on accident involvement. The results indicate that aggressive violations are more similar among private and professional drivers within the national samples, than across the national samples, while seat belt use seems to vary according to the professional versus private dimension. 
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 37th PIN Flash Report “How to improve urban road safety in the EU“, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report analyses the latest data urban road safety across the EU and other countries that form part of the ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, and it conclude with more than twenty main recommendations for action at EU. It is highlighted that the problems can be addressed with the right political leadership, resources and energy. But while the EU, national governments and other actors can help provide the knowledge, finance and guidelines to implement the necessary changes, it will often be up to local authorities to implement them effectively. A comprehensive infographic depicts current urban road safety in Europe, with Pedestrians, Motorcyclists and Cyclists accounting for 70% of all urban road fatalities. 
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “New Directions for Data-Driven Transport Safety”, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report explores how seamless data collection, analysis and sharing can unlock innovations in transport safety. Very often most interventions to improve transport safety are reactions to incidents. However lately, connected vehicles, smartphone apps, ubiquitous sensors, data sharing and machine learning make proactive transport safety interventions possible and prevent crashes before they happen. Drawing on the Safe System approach, this Report examines how transport stakeholders can make better decisions by using more relevant and timely new safety data.
Make Roads Safe Hellas in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Macedonia, the University of the Aegean, the Hellenic Open University and EASST, released a report titled: “International Tourism and Road Safety in Greece, Country Report 2019”. Make Roads Safe Hellas is a Non-Profit Organisation promoting road safety in Greece which hopes to gain momentum from their study and build support for the establishment of a Safe Tourism Network to ensure that road safety for tourists and travellers is given adequate attention, not just in Greece but across the globe. The Report is based on a survey of almost 1,500 international tourists visiting Athens, Chania, and Thessaloniki in 2018, as well on recent accident statistics from ELSTAT.
The European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) has published the “Safe Road Transport Roadmap – Towards Vision Zero: Roads without Victims”, with the active contribution of NTUA. The main objective of this ERTRAC roadmap is to provide a joint stakeholder view on the road safety research needs in Europe. The roadmap is based on the current state of the art and the identified challenges to reach the ambitious goals set for the EU. In this roadmap, ERTRAC proposes a set of eleven high priority road safety research and innovation needs, which should be implemented by providing ample room for citizens and road users themselves to engage.
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) published a Report titled: “Transport in the European Union: Current Trends and Issues“. The Report sets out the key trends and issues for the single European transport area, the development of a safe transport infrastructure network across EU countries, and the external costs of transport, accompanied with the respective country analyses. Special emphasis is given to the consequences of road accidents.
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, thirteen countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely UK, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Malta, Germany, Spain, Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, and France. Greece has been ranked 22nd in 2018 but has demonstrated the highest road fatalities rate reduction (51%) in the last decade, followed by Slovenia (48%), whereas the EU average 10-year reduction is 31%. 
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Road Safety in European Cities – Performance Indicators and Governance Solutions”. This reports benchmarks road safety performance for 72 urban areas, mostly in Europe, and illustrates governance solutions to improve urban road safety with case studies conducted in Lisbon (Portugal) and Riga (Latvia). The report proposes new road safety indicators to assess the level of risk for each mode of transport. It finds that a modal shift away from private motor vehicles could significantly enhance road safety in dense urban areas and deliver public health benefits associated with increased physical activity and improved air quality.
According to the European Commission preliminary statistics, fewer people died on European roads in 2018 but more efforts are needed to make a big leap forward. In 2018, there were around 25.100 fatalities in road accidents in the EU 28. This is a decrease of 21% compared to 2010, and 1% compared to 2017. The EU countries with the best road safety results in 2018 were the United Kingdom (28 deaths/million inhabitants), Denmark (30/million), Ireland (31/million), and Sweden (32/million), whereas the best improvement since 2010 was demonstrated by Greece (-45%) and Lithuania (-43%). With an average of 49 road deaths per one million inhabitants, this confirms that European roads are by far the safest in the world, but it also shows that we are off track to reach our target of halving the number of road deaths by 2020.
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 731 persons were killed in Greece in 2017: 507 drivers, 106 passengers and 118 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 66% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 16% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 59% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (6.4 fatalities per 100 accidents) and young people 15-24 years old (3.7 fatalities per 100 accidents). 
Road fatalities in Greece in 2018 presented, for second year in a row, a significant decrease (5.6%) compared to 2017 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease could be attributed not only to the fact that Greece is still under the effect of the economic crisis but also due to the fact that over the past two years, more than 500 km of new or upgraded motorways have replaced national roads with high road fatalities rates. 
During the last decade, Greece presents the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 56% and a decrease of serious injuries of 60%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 59% since 2008.
The Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), launched the GRSF 2018 Annual Report, highlighting its excellent record of delivery and long term funding for road safety. GRSF is a global partnership program administered by the World Bank, which was established in 2006 with a mission to help address the growing crisis of road traffic deaths and injuries in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 36th PIN Flash Report “Reducing Speeding in Europe“, with the active contribution of NTUA. The EU has the exclusive authority to set minimum safety standards for all new vehicles sold on the EU market. One of the main goals of this PIN Flash Report is to highlight the proposed standards which include mandatory fitment of overridable Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) on all cars, vans, buses and heavy goods vehicles. Research shows that this single technology could help to achieve a high level of compliance with speed limits and eventually cut road deaths by 20%.
Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991-2017 are summarised in a comprehensive Table prepared by the NTUA Road Safety Observatory (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2007, there are approximately 900 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data a spectacular decrease in road fatalities for children 0-14 years old (-71%), young drivers (-61%) and on motorways (-61%) is observed during the last decade. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited for moped riders (-26%), older drivers (-28%) and at rural (36%) and urban (37%) junctions. 
Since 54 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport. This year the WRS 2018 (data 2011-2016) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. What is highlighted this year is that freight transport is almost evenly split between road and rail in both Europe/ Central Asia region and North America. Passenger transport in these regions is essentially by road with 88% of passengers travelling by roads in Europe/Central Asia and 99% in North America. These statistics allow governments and urban planners to pinpoint where in the transport sector to focus their time and resources to ensure passenger safety and maximum economic benefits.
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 824 persons were killed in Greece in 2016: 548 drivers, 127 passengers and 149 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 62% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 14% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 58% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7.9 fatalities per 100 accidents) and 0-4 years old children (6.1 fatalities per 100 accidents). 
The World Health Organisation (WHO) published an Interactive Map on Global Road Safety, based on the recently published Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018. This Interactive Map is a highly useful tool allowing to visualize a wealth of information and several road safety parameters per country as well as to highlight the shocking fact that every 23 seconds a road user looses their life.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published the 10 key facts on global road safety as derived from the recent Global health estimates and the Global status report on road safety, published in 2018. The first fact is that “Road traffic injuries are a global public health problem“. To reduce the number of road traffic deaths and injuries, a holistic framework such as the Safe System Approach needs to be adopted to ensure a safe transport system for all road users.
The Global Status Report on Road safety 2018 has been published by World Health Organisation (WHO) with the active contribution of NTUA, in December 2018, highlighting insufficient progress as the number of annual road traffic deaths has reached 1.35 million. Road traffic injuries are now the leading killer of people aged 5-29 years. The report suggests that the price paid for mobility is too high, especially because proven measures exist. These include strategies to address speed and drinking and driving, among other behaviours; safer infrastructure like dedicated lanes for cyclists and motorcyclists; improved vehicle standards such as those that mandate electronic stability control; and enhanced post-crash care. Drastic action is needed to put these measures in place to meet any future global target that might be set and save lives.
A paper titled “Identification of patterns of driver speeding behaviour and safety margins from tangent to curve” authored by Eleonora Papadimitriou, Stergios Mavromatis, Dimosthenis Pavlou and George Yannis is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies. This paper presents a novel definition of drivers’ safety margins reflected in speed profiles on a tangent to curved road design. These safety margins are based on a vehicle dynamics model, which is implemented to assess the speed variation at impending skid conditions from tangent to curve on the basis of several parameters. Data from a driving simulator experiment are used to test the proposed methodology, explore driver’s speed profiles and the parameters affecting drivers’ safety margins. The results suggest that drivers’ safety margins towards the examined curve are considerable, with the majority of the drivers using less than 55% of the available vehicle engine power.
On the occasion of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the European Commission presented the final Road Safety Figures for 2017, which show for the second year in a row a decrease by 2% of road fatalities in the EU compared to the previous year. European Coordinator for Road Safety Matthew Baldwin said: “Whilst European roads are the safest in the world, the downward curve has flattened out in past years. We still have many challenges ahead of us: I especially think of vulnerable road users, who– as the figures show- are making up a larger share of the casualties, especially in urban areas. We need an active, cooperative, holistic approach amongst all stakeholders to implement what we know needs to be done – the Safe System“.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation published a Report titled “Analysis of the state of the art, barriers, needs and opportunities for setting up a Transport Research Cloud”, with the active contribution of NTUA Professor George Yannis. This Report focuses on the requirements for data sharing within the transport research community. In particular, the Report examines the potential of a Transport Research Cloud (TRC) as a subset of the European Union’s European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative. Six domain experts collected data based on their personal experiences, contacts, prior research and a survey sent out to other researchers in the transport domain to enable a preliminary analysis concerning the needs, barriers and potential benefits for the domain should a TRC be realized. Road Safety constitutes a major component of this Transport Research Cloud.
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) published the Final Report of the “Study on powered two-wheeler and bicycle accidents in the EU, SaferWheels”, with the active contribution of NTUA. The SaferWheels study was conducted to investigate accident causation for traffic accidents involving powered two-wheelers and bicycles in the European Union. The objective of the study was to gather PTW and bicycle accident data from in-depth crash investigations, obtain accident causation and medical data for those crashes, and to store the information according to an appropriate and efficient protocol enabling a causation-oriented analysis.
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Safer City Streets: Global Benchmarking for Urban Road Safety”, with the active contribution of NTUA. This document aims to support cities in setting road safety targets and to monitor progress in improving urban road safety. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists account for nearly 80% of urban traffic fatalities. Cities should thus intensify efforts to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. This document presents traffic safety indicators for different road user groups collected in 31 cities worldwide to facilitate the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes. It places a particular attention on measuring the risk of fatality per unit distance traveled.
The Horizons 2020 research project InDev (In-depth Understanding of Accident Causation for Vulnerable Road Users) recently published a handbook with focus on vulnerable road users entitled: How to analyse accident causation? This handbook was developed to help road safety professionals diagnose road safety problems by gaining more insights into the mistakes by road users that lead to collision. It describes various road safety methods that can be applied for studying the safety of vulnerable (and other) road users, including: accident data analysis, conflict and behavioural observations, self-reporting and naturalistic studies and road safety audit and inspection.
The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2018 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.
The Eurostat Regional Yearbook 2018 provides a detailed picture relating to a broad range of statistical topics across the Regions of the EU Member States, as well as the Regions of the EFTA and candidate countries, including the European Regions with the lowest and highest road accident rates. Each chapter presents statistical information in maps, tables, figures and infographics, accompanied by a descriptive analysis highlighting the main findings.
European Commission – DG for Research and Innovation in their Success Stories Web-page recently published the SaferAfrica H2020 project, which has been taken place with the active contribution of NTUA. As a continent, Africa has some of the most lethal roads in the world. A lack of road safety protocols, wanting road conditions and poor post-crash emergency response systems make for alarmingly high fatality rates. To help turn this around, the EU-funded project SaferAfrica is driving policies aimed at improving road safety. “Europe can play an important role by supporting African countries in improving road safety and achieving the Action Plan targets [African Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020],” says project coordinator Luca Persia. “In this view, the project aims at building favourable conditions and opportunities for the effective implementation of road safety actions in African countries by setting up a Dialogue Platform between Africa and Europe.”
In the framework of the European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes (ESRA), NTUA released 3 new infographics, regarding “Drivers’ self-declared behaviour” , “Drivers’ attitudes towards unsafe behaviour” and “Drivers personal and social acceptability” .
ESRA is a joint international initiative of 26 research centers and road safety institutes; the project has surveyed road users in 38 countries on 5 continents. The purpose of this network is to collect comparable data on the opinions, attitudes, and behaviour of road users concerning road safety and mobility, and to provide scientific evidence for policy making at the national and international levels. The Updated Main Report (2017 edition) of ESRA has been published containing the results from the survey in 38 countries, including 13 Latin America countries.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of Drivers’ Preferences Towards New Innovative Vehicle Insurance Schemes” was presented by Emmanouil Konstantinopoulos in July 2018, with the support and data from OSeven Telematics. The objective of this Diploma Thesis is to investigate the most important factors that determine the demand of Greek drivers for vehicle insurance services comprising new innovative insurance schemes of Pay As You Drive and Pay How You Drive (PAYD & PHYD), taking into account critical characteristics of driving behaviour. The analysis demonstrated that the young and the female drivers show higher probability of selecting PAYD/PHYD schemes, while the Freelancers are more reluctant to such schemes. 
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, twelve countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely Sweden, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Spain, Malta, Austria, and Luxembourg. Greece has been ranked 23rd in 2017. Estonia demonstrated the highest road fatalities rate reduction (64%) in the last decade, followed by Lithuania (57%), whereas the EU average 10-year reduction is 38% and for Greece is 51%.
Serious crashes on inter-urban roads may be slashed by a quarter over the next 30-40 years with the introduction of automated vehicles. However, the journey may be far from easy, with a mixed fleet transition and vital need for roads that cars can read, according to recent Report released by EuroRAP. The Report, the third in the “Roads that Cars Can Read” series, examines the relationship between road infrastructure and safety for conventional and increasingly-autonomous vehicles (AVs) and provides a framework for infrastructure safety investment. Other Reports in the series: “Roads that cars can read I: A consultation paper” – 2011 and “Roads that cars can read II: A quality standard for road markings and traffic signs on major rural roads” – 2013.
The Updated Main Report (2017 edition) of the European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes (ESRA) has been published containing the results from the survey in 38 countries, including 13 Latin America countries, with the active contribution of NTUA. The updated version of the ESRA webpage with Deliverables and Publications includes the 2017 Main Report in 3 languages (English, Spanish, French), six Thematic Reports on European drivers attitudes, and the country fact sheets.
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) have published a joint position paper, called ‘Improving infrastructure safety for powered two-wheelers’. Only in 2017 power two-wheelers fatalities (motorcycles and mopeds) counted for 17% of the total road victims, while accounting only for 1,8% of the total traffic flow. Both ERF and FEMA strongly believe that road safety for motorcyclists can be significantly improved by looking at the design of road infrastructure.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 12th edition of PIN Annual Report, with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2018 PIN Conference which took place with great success on 18 June, 2018 in Brussels. 25,250 people lost their lives on the EU roads in 2017, representing a 2% reduction on the 2016 figure. There has been progress since 2010 but time is running out and the 2020 target is now highly unlikely to be met. Strong political will and urgent measures are still needed in all EU Member States to narrow the gap between the desired and the actual EU progress.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 35th PIN Flash Report “An Overview of Road Death Data Collection in the EU“, with the active contribution of NTUA. The goal of this PIN Flash Report is to gather information on road death data collection in different PIN countries and to find out if and how countries cross-check or complement road death data recorded by the police with alternative sources. This Report provides very useful information to exchange good practice on how to improve road death data collection and recording.
Since 53 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport. Over the past years, the WRS have proved to be an invaluable and internationally accepted reference tool for governments, NGOs, investments banks, research institutes and anyone analyzing and reporting trends in key subject areas like traffic volumes and vehicle usage, road expenditure, road safety, energy consumption and emissions. This year, the WRS 2017 (data 2010-2015) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, presented in nine substantive sections, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. 
European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) released a very interesting guide containing good practices for managing work related vehicle risks in the EU, with a specific focus on workplace transport, driving for work and working on or near a road. With this interactive e-guide many good practices are provided as well as an overview of relevant regulations and information in three key aspects of vehicle risks: safe driving for work, workplace transport safety, and working on or near a road.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the full version of the Road Safety Annual Report 2018, which provides a detailed insight of road safety performance for 28 countries. The Annual Report outlines the most recent road safety developments across IRTAD countries and provides comparative data for the main road safety indicators also detailed by road user, age group and type of road. Furthermore, the IRTAD Annual Report contains syntheses of the the road safety strategies and targets in place as well on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour.
A paper titled “How many crashes are caused by driver interaction with passengers? A meta-analysis approach” authored by Athanasios Theofilatos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Eleonora Papadimitriou, and George Yannis is now published in Journal of Safety Research. Conversation and other interactions with passengers while driving induce a level of distraction to the person driving. This paper conducts a qualitative literature review on the effect of passenger interaction on road safety and then extends it by using meta-analysis techniques. The findings of the random-effects meta-analyses that were carried out showed that driver interaction with passengers causes a non-negligible proportion of road crashes, namely 3,5% of crashes regardless of the age of the passengers and 3.8% when child and teen passengers are excluded.
The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) has issued a comprehensive set of statistics on Casualty Road Accidents in Greece for 2016, comprising time-series for the decade 2007-2016. In 2016, 11.318 road accidents with fatalities or serious injuries occurred in Greece, recording a decrease of 1.1% in comparison with 2015 and ending an impressive road fatalities drop during the economic crisis of almost 50%. During the last five years, road fatalities in Greece have decreased by 29% (since 2011), however injury road accidents decreased only by 17%. The rate fatalities per number of vehicles has decreased by 30% since 2011.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Cooperative Mobility Systems and Automated Driving”. Automated vehicles could make roads safer as well as reduce congestion. Whether society will be able to capture these benefits while minimizing negative impacts depends on effective regulation of self-driving vehicles. The technology is still largely experimental and mass use is likely to take decades. This report reviews the range of existing service concepts for automated driving systems and technologies, the operational environments they require and assesses the need for regulatory action.
A new book titled ‘Homo automobilis ou l’humanité routière‘ authored by Dr. Jean-Pascal Assailly, Researcher at the French Institute of Sciences & Technology for Transport (IFSTTAR), is now available. “Homo automobilis”, who are you? That is the question this book answers. Jean-Pascal Assailly analyzes the behavior of the users of the road environment – whether one is a motorist or a pedestrian – which is so different depending on age, sex and culture.
“The Road to Zero Report” was developed by the Road to Zero Coalition, together with the RAND Corporation, setting a goal to eliminate traffic fatalities in the U.S. by 2050. The report is the first of its kind in the U.S. and identifies proven, life-saving actions for the short, mid, and long-terms that should be taken by federal, state, and local government officials; automakers; technology manufacturers; business leaders; insurance agencies; law enforcement; and safety advocates.
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) published the EU good practice guide: Safer roads for all. It includes Road Safety Statistics in EU, and good practices in EU countries with different safety performance levels. The EU success story is the result of many contributing factors: making road safety a political priority; broad cooperation across borders for a true European road safety area; adoption of the ‘safe system’ approach and the ‘vision zero’ perspective; target setting, data collection and continuous monitoring of results; and dedicated actions ranging from education and awareness campaigns to legislative action and safety focused technical vehicle regulations.
A paper titled “Structural equation model analysis for the evaluation of overall driving performance: A driving simulator study focusing on driver distraction” authored by Panagiotis Papantoniou is now published in Traffic Injury Prevention, Volume 19, 2018 – Issue 3, pp. 317-325. 95 participants from all age groups were asked to drive under different types of distraction (conversation with passenger, cell phone use) in urban and rural road environments with low and high traffic volume in a driving simulator experiment. Then, a structural equation model is developed in which overall driving performance is estimated as a latent variable based on several individual driving simulator measures. The implementation of the structural equation model allows for the assessment of driving behaviour in terms of overall performance and not through individual performance measures, which allows an important scientific step forward from piecemeal analyses to a sound combined analysis of the interrelationship between several risk factors and overall driving performance..
Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991-2016 are summarised in a comprehensive Table prepared by the NTUA Road Safety Observatory (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2005, there are approximately 1.000 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data a spectacular decrease in road fatalities for young people (70%) and in junctions outside built up areas (72%) is observed during the last decade. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited for cyclists, older drivers, and women drivers.
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) launched a publication titled “Securing safe roads: the politics of change” which is an output of the project: The politics of road safety. Over the past 10 years, road safety has been escalated to an issue of international concern. Together with the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, ODI undertook research in three middle-income cities: Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India; and Bogotá, Colombia. In this report, ODI synthesizes the findings from these case studies concluding with a series of strategies to improve road safety.
POLIS, the European cities and regions network for innovative transport solutions released a discussion paper entitled: “Road Vehicle Automation and Cities and Regions”. Polis promotes the discussion about vehicle automation, focusing on the car as opposed to lorries and buses and on ‘personal mobility’ rather than logistics. The aims of this paper are among others: a) to raise awareness of AV developments and their potential mobility and safety impact among city and regional administrations and to assist them in setting transport policies and plans to deal with them and b) to raise awareness of city and regional transport policies among vehicle manufacturers and other automated vehicle players.
The European Commission has published the preliminary 2017 road safety statistics, which indicate for the second year in a row, a decrease in the number of fatalities of around 2%. While national authorities deliver most of the day-to-day actions, such as enforcement and awareness-raising, the Commission is working on a series of concrete measures to spur further substantial progress. This would be another step towards a “Europe that protects” as envisioned by President Juncker.
Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: “25 300 people lost their lives on our roads last year, and many more were left with life-changing injuries. Behind these figures are as many stories of grief and pain. Road safety is of course a responsibility shared with the Member States, but I believe that the EU can do more to better protect Europeans. The ambition is clear: saving more lives on our roads.”
The Road Safety Statistics on EU are included in the recent EU report titled “Trends, Statistics and main challenges” and are discussed in the European Commission Fact Sheet: 2017 road safety statistics: What is behind the figures?
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a Position Paper titled “EU Funds for Road Safety in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027“. In this paper, ETSC presents recommendations for funding for road safety initiatives within the next long-term EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). These recommendations should support work towards meeting the EU’s current target to reduce road deaths by 50% by 2020 and the new targets for 2030 as well as the long-term Vision Zero.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2017 presented a significant decrease (10%) compared to 2016 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease could be attributed not only to the fact that Greece is still under economic crisis but also and mainly due to the fact that in the first semester of 2017, more than 500 km on new or upgraded motorways have been opened, replacing national roads with high road fatalities rates.
During the last decade, Greece presents one of the most significant road safety performances in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 54% and a decrease of serious injuries of 62%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 59% since 2007.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 34th PIN Flash Report “New EU vehicle safety standards essential to reducing child road deaths“, with the active contribution of NTUA. More than 8,000 children aged 0-14 years have been killed in road traffic collisions over the last ten years in the European Union, new data show. Half of the children killed were travelling in cars, a third were walking and 13% were cycling. ETSC says that measures that can reduce speeding are critical to preventing the deaths of more children and is calling for the EU to require vehicle safety technologies such as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) that can detect pedestrians and cyclists to be fitted as standard on all new cars.
The UNECE Global Road Safety Model SafeFITS developed by NTUA is now freely available online. The primary objective of the state of the art “Safe Future Inland Transport Systems (SafeFITS)” model is to assist Governments and Decision Makers to identify the most appropriate road safety policies and measures, allowing them to simulate the impact and effectiveness of different possible interventions based on real-world data.
SafeFITS Final Report e-publication:
Jean Todt, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety stated that: SafeFITS provides a tool to help Member States review their current road safety situation and priorities, assisting them to determine the most appropriate and beneficial policy options for their national context, under the framework of the Decade of Action for Road Safety.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has just published a Report titled ‘Call for mandatory alcohol interlocks in vans, lorries and buses across the EU‘. ETSC is looking at how to reduce the 5.000 deaths still caused by drink-driving in the European Union each year and comes up with two main recommendations: the EU should require alcohol interlocks: a) to be fitted in all new professional vehicles and b) retrofitted to cars used by repeat drink-driving offenders.
Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of ETSC said that: the alcohol interlock programmes have proven to be one of the most effective measures for tackling repeat drink-driving offences and should be extended across the European Union.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe released Facts Sheets with key facts and figures, ongoing commitments, guidance on action, and indicators to monitor progress of the Sustainable Development Goals health targets, regarding Road Safety :
European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG-MOVE) released the sixth and final Research Theme Analysis Report, covering the Transport Safety research theme, produced under the Transport Research & Innovation Portal (TRIP) continuation project, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Research Theme Analysis Report provides a robust and thorough assessment of the results from several European road safety projects and highlights the perspectives from scientific and policy points of view.
According to the ELSTAT final road accidents data for 2015 in Greece, 40% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants, whereas almost 30% of road fatalities are power two wheelers (the highest percentage in the European Union). Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. Accident severity is five times higher outside built-up areas for all transport modes.
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) has released the Road Statistics Yearbook 2017” with the active contribution of NTUA. As for many years, this publication provides the road community with important updated information on road transport sector and road infrastructure in Europe and beyond as an essential key element of the global mobility with one section focusing on road safety.
The International Transport Forum (ITF) released the updated version of the Transport Database including the Road Injury Accidents Database with the latest data (2016). The database includes data on road injury accidents and road casualties in 53 countries, covering years from 2000 to 2016. The interactive design of the database gives the opportunity to export data, draw charts, and make dynamic queries.
Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All) released the Global Mobility Report: the first-ever study to assess the global performance of the transport sector and the progress made toward four main objectives: universal access, efficiency, road safety, and green mobility. The publication covers all modes of transport, including road, air, waterborne, and rail transport. According to the report, the world is not on track to achieving sustainable mobility. Apart from being inaccessible to many of the world’s most vulnerable, the transport sector today is plagued by high fossil fuel use, rising greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution, an alarming number of road fatalities, and a reluctance to embrace digitalization.
The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2017 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the full version of the Annual Report 2017, which provides an overview of road safety performance for 2015 in 40 countries, with preliminary data for 2016, and detailed reports for each country. It includes tables with cross country comparisons on key safety indicators and puts special emphasis on road safety for an ageing population, which represents a growing concern in many countries. The positive trend over the last few years of reduced road fatalities did not continue in 2015 and 2016. The 31 IRTAD member countries registered a 3.3% increase in road fatalities in 2015 compared to 2014. Finally, in 2016, the number of fatalities increased in 14 countries.
The SafetyCube European Road Safety Decision Support System (DSS) was recently launched, developed within EU Horizons 2020 research project SafetyCube with the active contribution of NTUA. SafetyCube DSS is a long waited powerful tool offering for the first time worldwide, scientific evidence on the effects of a large number of road safety risks and related countermeasures on behaviour, infrastructure, vehicle and post-crash care, providing a wealth of scientific evidence to support road safety decision making. 
NTUA presentation in the launch event concerned: SafetyCube – the European Road Safety Decision Support System
The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, launched its new publication “Walking the Talk“, which describes the response of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and its member NGOs to the call for action represented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with focus on SDG 3.6 (“By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents.”) and 11.2 (“By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport systems for all.”).
EuroNCAP launched its Road Map 2025, setting out for the first time the programme’s priorities for the mobility and technological revolution the auto industry is just beginning to experience. The objective is to offer clarity and confidence to motoring consumers, highlighting new automated driving technologies and raising awareness of their benefits whilst also helping to ensure their safety potential is fully realised.
European Commission launched a report following the C-ITS Platform Phase I report from January 2016 and addresses the common technical and legal framework necessary for the deployment of C-ITS and also takes the needs and possibilities of higher levels of automation into consideration. Following an invitation of the European Commission, industry representatives and public authorities have agreed on a further developed shared vision on the inter-operable deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM) in the European Union.
A paper titled “Comparative assessment of the behaviour of drivers with Mild Cognitive Impairment or Alzheimer’s disease in different road and traffic conditions” authored by Dimosthenis Pavlou, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Costas Antoniou, Panagiotis Papantoniou, George Yannis, John Golias and Sokratis G. Papageorgiou, is now published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, Volume 47, May 2017, pp. 122-131. The objective of this research was the analysis of the driving performance of drivers with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in different road and traffic conditions, on the basis of a driving simulator experiment. The results of this research suggest that compensatory behaviours developed by impaired drivers are not adequate to counterbalance the direct effects of these cerebral diseases on driving skills. They also demonstrate that driving impairments increase as cognitive impairments become more severe (from MCI to AD).
United Nations launched the Report on Improving Global Road Safety, prepared by the World Health Organization in consultation with the United Nations regional commissions and other partners of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration. This Report provides an account of activities undertaken and achievements attained by the global road safety community in pursuance of the objectives of the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011 -2020) and of target 6 of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (halving road traffic deaths and injuries by 2020). A number of notable high-level events were held in the intervening period, including the activities of the EU Horizons 2020 Research project SaferAfrica – African-European Dialogue Platform on Road Safety with the active contribution of NTUA. The Report concludes with a number of recommendations to the Assembly for achieving the goals of the Decade of Action and Sustainable Development Goal target 3.6.
According to ELSTAT data, the majority of road accidents and fatalities in Greece occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. However, both road accidents and fatalities share outside built-up areas is much higher during rainy conditions than normal conditions of clear sky. Furthermore, accident severity is increased by 50% during raining especially inside built-up areas.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Analysis of the effect of economic recession on road safety in Greece” was presented by Christos Batsos in September 2017. For this analysis, suitably processed road accident data during the period 2003-2014 have been exploited. It appears that the economic recession has led to a significant reduction in fatalities and serious injuries. The principal mechanisms bringing this decline about are the reduction of accidents with involvement of passenger cars, of young drivers and outside traffic junctions. These results indicate that apart from the decline of vehicle kilometers of travel, changes in road user behaviour might have contributed significantly to the overall improvement of road safety during the economic crisis.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Modelling mobile phone use impact on driver behaviour through the exploitation of data from smartphone sensors” was presented by Anastasia Argyropoulou in July 2017, with the support and data from OSeven Telematics. The aim of this Diploma Thesis was to examine and model the impact of mobile phone use on driver behaviour through the exploitation of data from smartphone sensors. To achieve this objective, data collected from 100 drivers who participated at a naturalistic driving experiment for four months were analysed through statistical modelling. The application of the models revealed that the factors affecting the harsh events are five, with the average driving speed being the main one, while the factors affecting the possibility of using the mobile phone while driving are six, with the average angular speed being the main one.
A paper titled “Meta-analysis of the effect of road work zones on crash occurrence” authored by Athanasios Theofilatos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Eleonora Papadimitriou, George Yannis, and Konstandinos Diamandouros is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. This paper presents formal meta-analyses of studies that have estimated the relationship between the number of crashes and work zone duration and length, in order to provide overall estimates of those effects on crash frequencies. All studies presented in this paper are crash prediction models with similar specifications. Meta-regression findings indicate that the main factors influencing the overall estimates of the beta coefficients are study year and region for work zone duration and study year and model specification for work zone length.
According to the latest ELSTAT data for 2015, most road fatalities in Greece 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 3 to 7 times more at night with no street lighting or no street lighting, but also at night accidents outside built-up areas.
The Road Safety Unit of DG Move of the European Commission published recently the 2016 Edition of the EU Annual Road Accidents Report and the respective Infographics with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. The EU Annual Road Accidents Report is based on most recent disaggregate data for all EU countries from the CARE Database of the European Commission and consist of summary and cross-country comparative tables, figures and maps on key road safety topics for which data comparable across the EU counties are available.
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, ten countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely Sweden, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Austria, and Slovakia. Greece is ranked 24th in 2016. Lithuania demonstrated the highest road fatalities rate reduction (72%) in the last decade, followed by Estonia (63%) and Latvia (58%), whereas the EU average 10-year reduction is 42,5% and for Greece is 48%.
The World Road Association-PIARC recently published a Report entitled: “Advanced technology for data collection and information to users and operators”. The Report provides brief summaries of projects from around the world, presented in the form of use cases that are representative of innovative ways of collecting, distributing, and making use of mobile data to assist transportation officials in their winter maintenance operations and to provide information to the travelling public. The use cases or case studies were selected because it is the belief of the authors that, when deployed, any of the technologies described will have a positive impact on transportation safety, mobility, the environment, and/or more efficient use of human and material resources needed to carry out their winter maintenance duties.
New Infographics with key traffic safety facts and figures were recently published at the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO) of the DG Move Road Safety Unit of the European Commission, with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. These Infographics are based on the respective Basic Traffic Safety Facts 2016 published at the ERSO, containing a comprehensive series of statistical tables with the latest available data from the CARE database of the European Commission. These Infographics concern the following key traffic safety topics in relation to the Road Users: [Children, Young people (18-24), Youngsters (15-17), Elderly (aged >64), Gender Pedestrians, Cyclists, Motorcycles and Mopeds, Car occupants, Heavy Goods Vehicles and Buses], the Road Infrastructure (Motorways, Junctions, Urban areas, Roads outside urban areas) and the Accident Circumstances (Seasonality, Single vehicle accidents).
The Australia and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI), led by the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB), released the Preliminary findings from the first Australian National Survey of Public Opinion about Automated and Driverless Vehicles. In late 2016, a sub-set of members of ADVI’s Scientific Research Group designed and conducted a public opinion survey to gauge Australian public awareness, understanding and likely acceptance of automated vehicles, with the primary focus on cars. Responses from 5263 participants were collected and analysed in relation to their level of awareness of automated vehicles generally, and their opinions specifically about partly- and fully-automated cars: perceived risks associated with them, their willingness to pay for them, perceived potential benefits, trust in them, perceived concerns and likely acceptance.
SafeFITS, the Global Road Safety Model developed by NTUA for the United Nations – Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) with the support of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) has been presented and discussed at the respective RoundTable in Geneva, on June 30th, 2017. SafeFITS Model is a global macroscopic road safety decision making tool aiming to assist governments and decision makers, both in developed and developing countries, to explore and choose the most appropriate road safety policies and measures in order to achieve tangible results. The SafeFITS Model is based on the related scientific knowledge available worldwide, with emphasis on recent academic research and project results.
NTUA Professor George Yannis presentation concerned:
SafeFITS – A Global Road Safety Model For Future Inland Transport Systems
WHO Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Collaborating Centre in India, released two reports on road safety prepared by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS):
1. “Advancing Road Safety in India: Implementation is the key”, which is a report providing a comprehensive review of road safety scenario in India from a public health perspective
2. “Advancing Road Safety in India: Facts and Figures”, which is a report based on available information from different sources in India provides facts and figures aimed at equipping diverse stakeholders in taking appropriate actions
According to ELSTAT final road accidents data for 2015, come off the road and at angle collisions are the two most common accident types outside built-up areas. Pedestrian accidents, at angle collisions, come off the road and collisions with stopped vehicle are the most common accident types inside built-up areas. Accident severity is more than 5 times higher outside built-up areas at pedestrian accidents.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has just published the 33th PIN Flash Report “Tapping the potential for reducing work-related road deaths and injuries“, with the active contribution of NTUA. Over 25,600 lives were lost on the road in the European Union in 2016, of those a large proportion were victims of work-related road (WRR) collisions. Even though the exact number is unknown, it is likely that up to 40% of all road deaths are work-related. It includes three parts: Part I: Work-related road safety (WRRS) data collection and reporting, Part II: The national legal framework for work-related road safety, and Part III: Public authority leadership in managing work-related road risks.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the PIN Annual Report at the eleventh edition of PIN Annual Conference on 20 June 2017, in Brussels. Since 2014, progress has virtually ground to a halt. 2016 was the third consecutive poor year for road safety: 25,670 people lost their lives on EU roads compared to 26,200 the previous year – a 2% decrease. But this followed a 1% increase in 2015 and stagnation in 2014. Out of the 32 countries monitored by the PIN Programme, 15 countries registered a drop in the number of road deaths last year. NTUA contributed actively to this ETSC PIN Annual Report.
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT data, among the 793 persons killed in Greece in 2015: 405 were outside built-up areas and 388 were inside built-up areas. 57% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than 80% of road accidents and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is almost 5 times higher outside built-up areas in total.
The Private Sector Global Coalition Together for Safer Roads (TSR) composed by 16 leading global companies has organised on June 19th, 2017, in Atlanta, USA a Round Table Discussion on New Trends and Opportunities in Road Safety. This Round Table Discussion demonstrated the high potential of technology and new trends for safety improvement as well as the role of the Member Companies to promote and exploit this potential. NTUA Professor George Yannis presentation concerned:
The Council of the European Union set a new target of halving the number of serious injuries on roads in the EU by 2030 from the 2020 baseline, using a recently agreed common definition. Of particular concern is the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed or seriously injured each year. Council conclusions on road safety endorse the Valletta declaration on improving road safety adopted at an informal ministerial meeting organised by the presidency on 29 March 2017. They will feed into the next EU strategy on road safety, which is expected to be developed for the decade 2020-2030.
