The European Transport Safety Council together with the Road Safety Institute Panos Mylonas organised the 13^thEuropean Transport Safety Lecture, on “Distracted Driving“, which took place in Athens, in November 7th, 2011. The lecture was delivered by Associate Professor George Yannis, NTUA, with a response by Prof. Oliver Carsten of the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. Driver distraction is an important factor driving up the risk of road collisions worldwide. Researchers claim that some source of driver distraction is reported in up to 30% of road accidents.

The United Nations Secretary-General issued a 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. The report describes efforts undertaken around the world to address the major risk factors for road traffic crashes with the goal of reducing resultant deaths and injuries. 

The European Council adopted a directive on cross-border exchange of information on road traffic offences. The objective of this directive is to combat road traffic offences that considerably jeopardise road safety, by facilitating cross-border exchange of information. The directive covers the four traffic offences which cause the most road casualties in Europe, namely speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, non-use of a seat belt and failing to stop at a red light. 

The European Parliament passed a resolution proposing up to one hundred measures to improve road safety in the European Union with key aim to better protect vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, children and the elderly). The resolution sets out recommendations on infrastructure, road signs, driver training, checks and vehicle equipment. It also calls for the rapid introduction of “intelligent” electronic safety equipment. Finally, it calls on the European Commission to draw up a 4th road safety action plan. 

ASECAP in cooperation with the Greek national road association TEO, organised a Road Safety Event in Athens. Road safety is the top priority in relation to the high-quality service delivered by the tolled motorways to their users. The high safety levels of motorways are commonly recognised and this fact was underlined by representatives from the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Greek authorities present at the event.

NTUA Prof. D.Tsamboulas presented ‘Deploying Road Safety In Europe A New Approach for managing Road Safety’. 

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 90th Annual Meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in January 2011.  NTUA presented ‘Modeling traffic fatalities in Europe’. The objective of this paper is to provide a parsimonious model for linking motorization level with the decreasing fatality rates observed across EU countries during the last three decades.  

The Aegean University organised the international symposium for Road Safety – European Reality and Perspectives: A New Interdisciplinary Approach. The conference took place in Chios and its duration was 24-25 September. NTUA presented ‘Driver distraction and Road Safety in Greece and internationally’. 

The report “Research Projects and Studies 2001-2008“, published by the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, is a backround document for the preparation of the strategic guidelines for road safety up to 2020. The report highlights challenges and opportunities in road safety research in Europe, describing the contribution from the European Community’s Research Framework Programmes as well as from other research activities at European level and their impact on road transport safety sector. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) with the contribution of NTUA released the Manual on Road Traffic Injury Data Collection Systems, which emphasizes on the way to collect road safety data in each country in order to be useful for informing road safety practice. Reliable and accurate data are also needed to correctly identify problems, risk factors and priority areas, and to formulate strategy, set targets and monitor performance. Ongoing, data-led diagnosis and management of the leading road traffic injury problems enables appropriate action and resource allocation. 

Road design has been highlighted at the recently released synthesis of the European Road Safety Observatory as prepared by the SafetyNet project. Many of the basic principles for good road design were developed up to 40 years ago, and are still valid today. Although further refinements have been explored since then, there still remains uncertainty about relationships associated with design details and recent engineering innovations. Road infrastructure should be designed taking account of the same injury tolerance criteria as those developed for vehicle occupant protection and pedestrian impacts, so that roads and vehicles together provide an effective safety system.

The New Road Code as revised by the Revising Committee of the Hellenic Ministry of Transport has been voted by the Parliament and it is in force.  

In May 2009, CEDR published a report titled ‘Traffic incident management’. Good incident management is an important goal for all concerned with the management and safe operation of road networks. Research indicates that non-injury incidents contribute substantially to incident-related congestion. The most powerful tool in minimising the impact of incidents is the provision of fast, direct, high-quality information in a standard format that is acceptable across Europe.