An international conference on Green Accessible Intelligent Transport (GAIT2015) – Turkey – EU partnership for sustainable transportation, organised by the European Commission and the  Turkish Ministry of Transport, took place in Istanbul, on 8-9 October 2016.  The plenary and discussion sessions of the conference were attended by more than 700 participants and raised important issues belonging to the daily lives of Turkish and European citizens, varying from accessibility of transport services to the adaptation and mitigation challenges posed by climate change on the transport sector.  

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Road safety in urban mobility policies‘  

The EU 2015/758 Regulation concerning the type-approval requirements for the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system based on the 112 service is just published in the Official Journal on 19 May 2015. This Regulation foresees the mandatory fitting of 112-based eCall in-vehicle system on all new types of M1 and N1 vehicles from 31 March 2018 onward, as well as the right of the vehicle owner to use a TPS eCall in-vehicle system providing a similar service, in addition to the 112-based eCall in-vehicle system. The 112 eCall automatically dials Europe’s single emergency number 112 in the event of a serious road accident and communicates the vehicle’s location to the emergency services. 

The Conference on Transport Safety: Societal challenges, Research solutions, was organised by the European Commission and the Italian EU Presidency and took place with great success on 4-5 December 2014, in Genoa, Italy. More than 350  road safety experts, stakeholders and decision-makers participated and contributed actively at the Conference structured interactive debates. 

The conference addressed the safety challenges specific to each mode but also the common issues and concerns that cut across them – notably human factors, automation and data management – taking into account societal challenges, policy requirements, technological developments and economic benefits to assess the future needs for transport safety, and identify priorities for activities in Horizon 2020 and beyond. The Conference results are summarised at the Conference Final Statement. 

NTUA Prof. George Yannis delivered the final key note speech titled: ‘Major societal challenges and research solutions in transport safety in Europe‘ 

The European Commission adopted two proposals to help mitigate the consequences of serious road accidents across the EU. By October 2015, cars will automatically call emergency services in case of a serious crash. The “eCall” system automatically dials 112 – Europe’s single emergency number – in the event of a serious accident. It communicates the vehicle’s location to emergency services, even if the driver is unconscious or unable to make a phone call. It is estimated that it could save up to 2.500 lives a year (MEMO/13/547). 

The Greek eΚΛΗΣΗ project is now in the final stages of creating an automatic warning system in case of a traffic accident. The first tests of the automatic emergency call system (eCall), within the frame of the pilot national research project eΚΛΗΣΗ (http://www.ecall-hellas.eu/), have been successfully concluded. The tests were performed on a prototype system and rooted emergency calls from the In Vehicle System (IVS), which was implemented by the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), an ERTICO partner, to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), which was implemented by SPACE HELLAS, through the mobile telecommunication network of COSMOTE. The national project eΚΛΗΣΗ prepares Greece for the implementation of the eCall service which will be obligatory for all EU member-states from end 2014. 

eSafety is defined as a vehicle-based intelligent safety systems which could improve road safety in terms of exposure, crash avoidance, injury reduction and post-crash phases. eSafety has been analysed at the recently released synthesis of the European Road Safety Observatory as prepared by the SafetyNet project. The evaluation of eSafety measures is a young science. However, research in the EU and elsewhere has confirmed that the following measures could make a large contribution to efforts to meet ambitious safety targets. the EU and Member States should establish a monitoring system to evaluate the design, development and implementation of new in-vehicle technologies and their short, medium, and long-term impacts on road safety. 

The ETSC Best in Europe Conference on e-safety, organised by the European Transport Safety Council took place in Brussels in February 2006. It aimed to provide an inspirational annual showcase for best practice measures and innovation in road safety in Europe.

NTUA presented ‘Road accident data in the enlarged European Union – learning from each other’.