ETSC is calling on the European Commission to come forward with a long-awaited target to reduce serious road injuries after a planned announcement was apparently dropped from a major review of road safety policy.
Since 2010 the number of people seriously injured on EU roads has been reduced by just 1.6%, compared to an 18% decrease in the number of road deaths. Last year the numbers actually went up, by more than 3% compared to the previous year, with at least 203,500 people suffering life-changing injuries.
ETSC has long argued for the need for a separate pan-European target to reduce serious road injuries, to complement the targets that have been in place since 2001 to reduce deaths.
Since 2010, the European Commission has been committed to introducing such a target. Two years ago, the crucial common definition of the types of injuries to be recorded and tracked was approved. A target was finally expected to be set in the first half of 2015, having been promised ‘shortly’ in a Commission press release of 24 March 2015.
But the European Commission backtracked, and the target is now in limbo. ETSC is calling on the Commission to publish a target by the end of this year.
More than 70 experts and representatives of road safety organisations and victims groups from across Europe together with 12 members of the European Parliament have written to President Jean-Claude Juncker urging him to reverse the decision to drop the target.
Transport ministers from Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania and Luxembourg (current holder of the EU presidency) have also added their voices to the campaign.
If you’d like to join the campaign, why not download and print this placard, take a picture of yourself holding it and post the photo on twitter or facebook? Use the hashtag #letsgo and our twitter handle @etsc_eu or let us know via facebook. We’ll make sure all the messages get through to the European Commission.
To find out more, read our briefing.
Πηγή: www.etsc.eu
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