The Road Safety Institute Panos Mylonas and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised with great success a country seminar in Athens on 12 June  2017, within the framework of the ETSC YEARS project (Young Europeans Acting for Road Safety). The aim was to debate on the dangers and policy recommendations for young road users on European and national level. Representatives from the Greek Authorities, road safety experts and stakeholders as well as the European Commission representation in Athens discussed and contributed on good practices in Greece and in Europe.       NTUA presentation concerned:

Problems and solutions for youth’s road safety in Greece and Europe

Road Safety of Youngsters in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2015 available at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. These Traffic Safety Basic Facts contain a comprehensive series of statistical tables with the latest available data from the CARE database of the European Commission. In 2013 around 630 persons aged 15-17 died in road accidents, in the EU countries. The number of 15-17 years old fatalities in road accidents has decreased by almost 63% between 2004 and 2013. 

Road Safety of Young people in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2015 available at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. These Traffic Safety Basic Facts contain a comprehensive series of statistical tables with the latest available data from the CARE database of the European Commission. More than 62.000 young people were killed in road accidents in the EU between 2004 and 2013, less than a fifth of all road accident fatalities in those countries. Young people are at almost twice the risk of being killed in a road accident than the average member of the population across the EU countries as a whole. 

A new book titled ‘Why Young People Drink: An analysis of the determinants of youth drinking behaviour‘ authored by Dr. Jean-Pascal Assailly, Researcher at the French Institute of Sciences & Technology for Transport (IFSTTAR), is now available. Young people’s alcohol misuse has become an important concern in many countries as the consequences of this phenomenon are multiple, among which traffic accidents. This book is a comprehensive, encyclopaedic overview of the underpinnings of alcohol use in adolescents and state-of-the-art adapted prevention and treatment strategies. 

A report on ‘Managing Young Drivers at Work‘ has recently been published by ETSC. Evidence shows that young people have the highest collision involvement of any road user group. Approximately one in four young people who die within Europe’s borders do so as a result of a road collision. This report looks into the direct and indirect factors associated with higher collision rates of young drivers at work and makes recommendations on how to assess and mitigate the specific risks associated with this group. 

A paper titled ‘Impact of texting on young drivers’ behaviour and safety in urban and rural roads through a simulation experiment‘ co-authored by George Yannis,Alexandra Laiou, Panagiotis Papantoniou and Charalambos Christoforou is now published in Journal of Safety Research. A driving simulator experiment was carried out in which 34 young participants drove in different driving scenarios; specifically, driving in good weather, in raining conditions, in daylight and in night were examined. Lognormal regression methods were used to investigate the influence of texting as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and mean reaction time. Binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of texting use as well as various other parameters in the probability of an accident. It appears that texting leads to statistically significant decrease of the mean speed and increase of the mean reaction time in urban and rural road environment. Simultaneously, it leads to an increased accident probability due to driver distraction and delayed reaction at the moment of the incident. It appeared that drivers using mobile phones with a touch screen present different driving behavior with respect to their speed, however, they had an even higher probability of being involved in an accident.  

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Comparative analysis of young drivers’ behaviour in normal and simulated conditions in interurban road‘ was presented by Marios Nikas in January 2014. This Diploma Thesis aims to compare the behavior of young drivers in normal and simulated driving conditions. Data were collected through an experimental process on a driving simulator but also on real traffic conditions, in which all the participants drove in both cases the same driving scenarios. Lognormal regression methods were developed for the identification of the impact of driving environment (simulated and real traffic conditions), basic driver characteristics (mileage, age, gender), as well as the driving style (average acceleration, deceleration and standard deviations of them) to the average vehicle speed change. Through model implementation, it was revealed that absolute values of drivers’ traffic performance vary between simulated and real driving conditions. On the contrary, relative differences of driver behaviour at the two driving environments remain mostly the same. More precisely, speed difference between fast and slow drivers is the same at the two driving environments, as is also speed difference the same at the two driving environments between drivers talking and not talking to the co-driver. 

Road Safety of Young people 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. 4.853 young people (aged 18-24 years old) were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries in 2010. The number of young people killes in road accidents halved between 2001 abd 2010. 

Road Safety of Youngsters 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 900 youngsters (aged 15-17 years old) were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries in 2010. This figure represents a more than 50% decrease in relation to the 1.859 youngster fatalities since ten years before in 2001. 

A paper titled ‘Reaction times of young alcohol-impaired drivers’ co-authored by Z.Christoforou, M.Karlaftis and G.Yannis is now available at the Accident Analysis and Prevention Journal. The paper focuses on young individuals who drive under the influence of alcohol and are having a higher relative risk of crash involvement; as such, the literature has extensively investigated the factors affecting such involvement through both post-accident surveys and simulator experiments. The results suggested that increased reaction times before consuming alcohol strongly affect post-consumption reaction times, while increased BrAC levels prolong reaction times, a 10% increase in BrAC levels results in a 2% increase in reaction time. Moreover, individuals with faster alcohol absorption times perform better regardless of absolute BrAC level, while recent meals lead to higher reaction times and regular exercising to lower reaction times.  

The 4th European Road Safety Day, organised by the European Commission and with the Cyprus Presidency and took place place on 25 July 2012 in Nicosia. The day was dedicated to young people and on the agenda were issues such as the creation of a road safety culture among young people, workshops on education, enforcement and risky behaviours. 

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Impact of texting on young drivers’ traffic and safety on motorways by the use of a driving simulator‘  was presented by Christos Gartzonikas in July 2012. An experimental process on a driving simulator was carried out, in which all the participants drove in different driving scenarios. Lognormal regression methods were used to investigate the influence of text messaging as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and the mean distance from the front vehicle. Binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of text messaging as well as various other parameters in the probability of an accident. It appears thattext messaging leads to statistically significant decrease of the mean speed and to increase of the headway in normal and in specific conditions in motorways and simultaneously leads to an increase of accident’s probability, probably due to increased reaction time of the driver in case of an incident. 

Road Safety of Youngsters in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2011 recently released at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission as prepared by the DACOTA project. Almost 1.000 youngsters (aged 15-17 years old) were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries in 2009. This figure represents a 40% decrease in relation to the 1.700 youngster fatalities since ten years before in 2000. 

Road Safety of Young people in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2010 recently released at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission as prepared by the DACOTA project. 5.675 young people (aged 18-24 years old) were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries in 2009. This figure represents a 44% decrease in relation to young people fatalities since ten years before in 2000. 

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, within the framework of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, organised a workshop on road safety and young people, which took place in Athens on 6th April.  At this Workshop the results of the national competition for young artists on road safety digital posters and videos were announced.

In November 2011, ETSC published a PIN Flash concerning young people. Young men are four times more likely to die on EU roads than young women. The annual average reduction in road deaths among young people is higher than the corresponding reduction for the rest of the population, but in Hungary, Greece, Poland, Ireland, Finland and Romania the opposite is true and road safety of other age groups has improved more. NTUA Associate Professor, George Yannis stated that: “when adjusted for exposure, accident risk for the 18-24-year-old motorcycle riders (202 deaths per million vehicle-km driven) is 8 times higher than the risk for young car drivers (25 deaths per million vehicle-km travelled) and 25 times higher than the risk for older car drivers (8 deaths per million vehicle-km travelled)”. 

Road Safety of Young people in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2010 recently released at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission as prepared by the DACOTA project. 6.421 young people (aged 18-24 years old) were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries in 2008. This figure represents a 40% decrease in relation to young people fatalities since ten years before in 1999. 

Road Safety of Youngsters in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2010 recently released at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission as prepared by the DACOTA project. Almost 1.200 youngsters (aged 15-17 years old) were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries in 2008. This figure represents a 39,6% decrease in relation to the 1.984 youngster fatalities since ten years before in 1999.   

Far more males than fatalities are killed in road accidents in all EU-23 countries. Most road fatalities are within the 25-64 age group. 

According to the data male drivers account for more than 60% of all road fatalities in Greece, while young male drivers account for more than 50% of all male driver fatalities. Older drivers account for more than 50% of pedestrian fatalities. 

A research titled ‘Mobile phone use by young drivers: effects on traffic speed and headways’ co-authored by G.Yannis, E.Papadimitriou, X.Karekla and F.Kontodima was published in Transportation Planning and Technology in June 2010. A field survey was carried out in real road traffic conditions, in which drivers’ speeds and headways were measured while using or not using a mobile phone. Results show that mobile phone use leads to a statistically significant reduction in traffic speeds of young drivers in all types of traffic conditions. 

Road safety of novice drivers has been highlighted at the recently released synthesis of the European Road Safety Observatory as prepared by the SafetyNet project. Novice drivers pose a greater risk to themselves, their passengers and to other road users than other drivers do. In most countries, novice drivers, under the age of 25, account for the largest share of traffic crashes and fatalities. 

The OECD/ECMT have published a joint report titled Young Drivers: the road to safety, according which road crashes are the single greatest killer of 15 – 24 year-olds in OECD countries. Young drivers account for about 27% of driver fatalities across OECD countries, although people in the same age group represent only about 10% of the population.