Experts from over 30 European countries discussed new road-safety initiatives in the Hofburg in Vienna at the invitation and under the chairmanship of the Austrian Ministry of Transport on 24 and 25 January. The aim of the discussions is to make European roads safer and, as a result, cut the number of casualties, which is the objective defined in the EU White Paper.
“We have set ourselves the ambitious target of halving the number of road deaths in the EU by 2010. Austria is well on the way to achieving this aim”, stated Transport Minister Hubert Gorbach with regard to Austria’s road accident figures: The number of deaths on the road has fallen by almost 30% during his time in office.
Austria has made road safety one of the main themes of its EU Presidency. As yet, there are no common European safety standards for the transport infrastructure. For this reason joint initiatives are to be launched and procedures elaborated over the next two days. “Austria is one of Europe’s most innovative countries in the area of road safety. We have implemented a large number of new projects: educative road-safety campaigns such as “Belts save lives”, the points registration system for driving licences, driving with headlights during daytime, massive investments to extend the roadway infrastructure, the promotion of traffic telematics innovations and much more besides,” stated Minister Gorbach.
The meeting will include an exchange of know-how. Austria is focusing, among others, on two methods: road-safety checks carried out during the planning, design and construction phases iron out accident spots before the completion phase; road-safety checks carried out periodically by trained experts thereafter eliminate safety risks before accidents occur.
“The common aim must be to establish a pan-European road-safety culture in the infrastructure area”, said Minister Gorbach.
The results of the meeting will be presented at the Informal Council of Transport Ministers to be held in Bregenz on 2 and 3 March.
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