Announcement: Round the World Roundtables

The Round the World Roundtables initiative was launched yesterday in Hanoi Vietnam, hosted by AIP Foundation. At this first roundtable event, Mr. Nguyen Van The, Minister of Transport and Permanent Vice Chairman of NTSC, Vietnam, handed a baton containing commitments to road safety and the Voluntary Global Performance Targets to Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Road Safety. Read the press release BELOW. The Round the World Roundtables are coordinated by the Alliance and events will be held on different continents in the lead up to the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden in February 2020. In addition to these high-level roundtables, Alliance members are invited to organize their own roundtables, which can be on a local or national scale, based on one street, a city, or of country-wide significance. All the commitments will be gathered to be presented in Sweden. Find out more and how to get involved HERE. The Round the World Roundtables support the UN Global Road Safety Week #SpeakUp campaign, promoting leadership in road safety. PRESS RELEASE Vietnam commits to United Nations road crash prevention goals at Round the World Roundtable 19 March, 2019 - Hanoi, Vietnam Leading up to the 3rd United Nations Ministerial Meeting scheduled in Sweden in February 2020, Vietnam has been selected to launch a 5-continent initiative organized by the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety. The initiative supports the UN Voluntary Global Performance Targets for Road Safety. At the event, a symbolic baton was handed over to UN Special Envoy Jean Todt by the Government of Vietnam to signify their commitment. “It is essential to increase the uptake of helmet use. Wearing a quality helmet has been proven to reduce drastically the risk of death and serious injury in the event of a crash. At the same time, it is essential to ensure that helmets available on the market meet acceptable safety standard to protect lives” said Jean Todt, UN Special Envoy for Road Safety. “The Vietnamese government recognizes the challenges remaining and has committed to: 1) increase helmet wearing rates among children of Vietnam to over 80% by 2030; 2) enforce compliance of quality helmets and ban all counterfeit helmets that do not meet technical requirements; 3) ensure successful implementation of the 3-year GVN road safety action plan which includes the Global Road Safety Performance Targets; and 4) present these commitments in Stockholm in 2020,” said Dr. Khuat Viet Hung, Vice Chairman of the NTSC. AIP Foundation Founder and President Greig Craft said: “The impact of head trauma on children and families remains a global health ‘epidemic’. The Government of Vietnam’s commitment is commendable and sets an example for other countries.” In turn, civil society partners and the corporate sector have committed to support the initiatives set forth by the Government and marks a global milestone in road crash prevention. “We are honored to be one of the founding members of this Global Road Safety Initiative,” said Eduardo Martinez, UPS chief diversity and inclusion officer and president of The UPS Foundation. “By contributing our safety expertise, providing funding, and collaborating with long-time partner, the AIP Foundation, we create a powerful multiplier effect that will accelerate the Initiative and help save lives. I am pleased to announce today that The UPS Foundation will contribute US $1 million to the AIP Foundation to support child helmet use and increase road safety skills and awareness in Vietnam, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.” “Road fatalities globally are increasing.  Commitments at national level, such as this one, are critical to reversing the deadly trend and we applaud the Government of Vietnam for taking a stand. NGOs are pushing hard to raise road safety on their countries’ agendas. AIP Foundation are working side-by-side with us and our 225 other NGOs in 90 countries around the world to secure commitments that will save lives. ” said Lotte Brondum, Executive Director of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety. Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety

TISPOL Bulletin

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Truck driver alcohol and drug offences double

The number of alcohol and drug offences among truck and coach drivers has doubled since 2018, according to results from TISPOL's latest enforcement operation. 

From 19 to 24 February, a Europe-wide TISPOL enforcement operation focusing on trucks and buses took place. The safety of commercial goods and passenger transport was central to the operation, which involved coordinated police controls in 29 participating  countries.

According to the latest results from 20 countries, 103,515 trucks and 18,047 buses were checked. 

More than 33,000 violations were found (trucks: 30,014, buses: 3,371) 

There were 2,092 occasions where a vehicle was prohibited from travelling any further due to its dangerous condition (2,046 trucks and 46 buses). 

On average, violations or faults were found in 29% of trucks and 18% of buses.

Volker Orben of TISPOL's Executive Committee said: "European police officers have a very high standard of training in heavy traffic controls, which is reflected in the high complaint rate.”

Most of the offences were found in the areas of driver regulations:

8,203 truck drivers and 208 bus drivers contravened drivers' hours regulations, driving their vehicles for longer than legally allowed without complying with mandatory breaks.

There were 3,413 instances where tachographs were not properly managed. 

Manipulations of digital tachographs were detected in 370 cases.

Also, 212 alcohol offences and 86 drug offences were detected among drivers. 

This is almost double the rate from controls 12 months ago, in February 2018, where there were 115 offences across Europe (80 alcohol and 35 drug-driving).

In 7,857 cases the technical condition as well as the load securing was incorrect, and in 1801 cases it was so serious that a truck's onward journey had to be prohibited.

Although the offences in the dangerous goods sector initially appear small in percentage terms at less than 3%, there were still have been 703 offences (a rise of 240 - or 51% - on the same period of the previous year).

Regarding bus offences, the most common violations were missing documents(58), the non-wearing of seatbelts (22), excessive speed (18) and technical defects (8). 

208 drivers also had exceeded the legally permitted driving times

Volker Orben continued: "These results show that inspections in the area of ​​heavy goods traffic and passenger transport are still an important approach to improve traffic safety.

"Especially in the field of ​​passenger transport, passengers must be able to rely on the fact that the vehicles are in perfect technical condition and the drivers are not fatigued."

The next TISPOL operation will take place from 1 to 7 April, with the focus on Speed. A key part of this will be the European Speed Marathon, involving police officers in 26 countries on 3 April.

 

Ireland: 17% rise in intoxicated drivers so far this year

The first two months of 2019 have shown that 1,429 motorists have been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, an increase of 17 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The figures were released as Gardaí and the Road Safety Authority issued their St Patrick's weekend appeal.

Gardaí warned of a visible police presence across the country las weekend, with a targeted focus on those driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both. 

The warning came as 34 people had already lost their lives on the country's roads this year. 

Moyagh Murdock of the Road Safety Authority and Ch Supt Aidan Reid warned people at a press conference on Friday 15 March to plan ahead and make sure they knew how they were getting home, whether by taxi or with a designated driver or by public transport.

 

Netherlands: Bike helmets would save 85 cycling fatalities a year, says report

A new report from the Dutch road safety research foundation predicts that if cyclists in the Netherlands always wore a helmet, there would be 85 fewer road deaths a year,

The research, which assumes that currently between none and 10% of cyclists actually wear a helmet, is based on a global analysis from 2018. This found that protective headgear reduces serious head injury by 60% and cuts serious and fatal injuries by around one third.

Full story >>

 

Spain: tougher driving penalties approved after cycling death 

Following a campaign launched by the widow of a cyclist who was killed in a hit and run in 2015, the Spanish government has approved tougher penalties, and a significant change in the law for serious traffic offences.

Anna González, lost her husband Óscar in 2015 when he was hit by a truck whilst cycling. The driver of the truck fled the scene but was identified by the remains of the vehicle that were left behind. He was subsequently arrested...

Full story >>

 

Poland: Maltese teenager who ran over Polish cyclist imprisoned in Poland for four years

A Maltese under-age driver without a driving licence who ran over and killed a cyclist in Poland has been sentenced to four years in prison and given a lifetime ban.

The 18-year-old Maltese was sentenced to four years in prison for the fatal hit and run of a cyclist. The court found that the boy was driving without a driving licence and under the influence of marijuana.

He was also given a lifetime driving ban.

Read more >>

 

Portugal: Algarve region sees biggest increase in road deaths

According to the National Authority for Road Safety, the number of collisions rose to just over 20,000 since the beginning of the year. Severe injuries also rose in January and February, with 283 suffering serious injuries, 36 more than the same period of 2018.

These latest figures once again confirm the trend that has seen fatalities increase on Portuguese roads in the past three years.

The Algarve is where road deaths have risen the most, climbing by almost 30 per cent in the year ending on 28 February.

Read more >>

 

Dates for your diary:

1-7 April: TISPOL speed enforcement operation.
3 April: European Speed Marathon, involving police officers in 26 countries

9 - 11 April: TISPOL meetings and Project EDWARD launch, Prague

16 April: #Dontstreamanddrive day

Αναδημοσίευση: Κανένα σχέδιο δράσης από την Γ .Γ Πολιτικής Προστασίας για την διάσωση Ανθρώπων με αναπηρία και ηλικιωμένων σε περιπτώσεις έκτακτης ανάγκης ή φυσικών καταστροφών

Λυπάμαι όταν πρέπει να επανέλθω σε ένα ζήτημα ακριβώς γιατί δεν έχει επιλυθεί. 

Ένα από αυτά είναι το ακόλουθο:

Η έκτακτη ανάγκη δεν προειδοποιεί για τον ερχομό της. Οι συνέπειες της περιορίζονται όταν η οργάνωση των μονάδων αντιμετώπισής της είναι άριστη και η εξάσκηση τους στην εφαρμογή των καταστρωμένων σχεδίων είναι διαρκής. 

Όταν στις αρχές του 2018 έγραψα το άρθρο που θα διαβάστε πατώντας τον ακόλουθο σύνδεσμο

https://takisalexandrakis.blogspot.com/2018/01/blog-post_16.html δεν εξελισσόταν κάποιο γεγονός έκτακτης ανάγκης. 

Με απασχολούσε το θέμα και προσπάθησα να μάθω αν υπάρχει κάποιο καταστρωμένο σχέδιο διάσωσης ανθρώπων με αναπηρία και ηλικιωμένων.

 Επικοινώνησα με τους αρμοδίους της πολιτικής προστασίας, με ανώτερα στελέχη μεταξύ των οποίων και ο αρμόδιος επιπυραγός κ. Σπύρος Γεωργίου. 

Έντρομος αποκάλυψα πως δεν υπάρχει κανένα οργανωμένο εφαρμόσιμο σχέδιο. Μόνο κάποιες γενικές, οδηγίες που αφορούν στο σεισμό, στον ιστότοπο του Οργανισμού αντισεισμικής προστασίας.

Διαμαρτυρήθηκα λέγοντας πως αυτό δεν αποτελεί ούτε κατά διάνοια οργανωμένο κρατικό σχέδιο πολιτικής προστασίας για τη διάσωση Ανθρώπων που αδυνατούν ν' αυτοπροστατευτούν. 

Τους κάλεσα εγγράφως να οργανώσουν μια συνάντηση για να συζητηθεί το ζήτημα, τους ενημέρωσα ότι προτίθεμαι να καταθέσω ορισμένες παρατηρήσεις και προβληματισμούς.

Στόχος, η κατάστρωση σχεδίων άμεσης επέμβασης, όπως σύστημα ειδοποίησης των αρχών για επερχόμενο κίνδυνο, ενημέρωσης των ανθρώπων με αναπηρία και των ηλικιωμένων για την κατάσταση έκτακτης ανάγκης και με τη χρήση της σύγχρονης τεχνολογίας, ώστε ταυτόχρονα να

επιτυγχάνεται και η άμεση ενημέρωση των διασωστών, ως προς την ακριβή θέση των εγκλωβισμένων και τις ειδικές ανάγκες τους. Δεν έλαβα ποτέ καμιά απάντηση. 

Τονίζω πως αν εξετάσουμε τον κατάλογο των θυμάτων της πρόσφατης τραγωδίας, θα βρούμε, ίσως, μέσα σ' αυτόν αρκετούς ανθρώπους με αναπηρία και ηλικιωμένους, για τους οποίους, δυστυχώς, δεν υπάρχει σχέδιο πολιτικής προστασίας.

http://takisalexandrakis.blogspot.com/2018/08/blog-post.html

Αλεξανδράκης Παναγιώτης

Lawyer

Coordinator of "Man in the Epicenter" scientific Forum

NRSO Road Safety Update

Review and ranking of crash risk factors related to the road infrastructure, 2019 A paper titled “Review and ranking of crash risk factors related to the road infrastructure” authored by Eleonora Papadimitriou, Ashleigh Filtness, Akis Theofilatos, Apostolis Ziakopoulos, Claire Quigley and George Yannis is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. This analysis was carried out within the SafetyCube project, which aimed to identify and quantify the effects of risk factors and measures related to behaviour, infrastructure or vehicles, and integrate the results in an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS). Synthesis of results was made through 39 ‘Synopses’ (including 4 original meta-analyses) on individual risk factors or groups of risk factors. This analysis allowed the ranking of infrastructure risk factors into three groups: risky (11 risk factors), probably risky (18 risk factors), and unclear (7 risk factors).   For full text just ask us by replying to this email. Latest Developments EU Reforms on Road Infrastructure Safety Management, 2019 The European Council reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a proposal to strengthen road infrastructure management to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries. The reform will extend the scope of the current rules to motorways and other primary roads beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). Furthermore, it introduces a network-wide road safety assessment, which is a snapshot of the entire road network covered by the Directive used to evaluate accident risk and the Authorities will use the findings to carry out more targeted road safety inspections or take direct remedial action. It will become mandatory to take systematic account of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users in road safety management procedures.   The draft directive amending directive on road infrastructure safety management is available:  ETSC – Reducing Speeding in Europe, 2019 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 36th PIN Flash Report “Reducing Speeding in Europe“, with the active contribution of NTUA. The EU has the exclusive authority to set minimum safety standards for all new vehicles sold on the EU market. One of the main goals of this PIN Flash Report is to highlight the proposed standards which include mandatory fitment of overridable Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) on all cars, vans, buses and heavy goods vehicles. Research shows that this single technology could help to achieve a high level of compliance with speed limits and eventually cut road deaths by 20%.   ETSC – 7 SMART Ways of tackling Drink-Driving in Europe, 2019 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a report titled “7 SMART Ways of tackling Drink-Driving in Europe”. The report aims to present the wide-ranging approaches used to tackle drink driving in Europe, including legislation (BAC limits, rehabilitation programmes for drink driving offenders), enforcement, technology (alcohol interlocks) campaigns and education.   Global Road Safety Facility – Annual Report, 2018 The Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), launched the GRSF 2018 Annual Report, highlighting its excellent record of delivery and long term funding for road safety. GRSF is a global partnership program administered by the World Bank, which was established in 2006 with a mission to help address the growing crisis of road traffic deaths and injuries in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).   SaferAfrica 4th Newsletter, 2019 The 4th Newsletter of the African-European Dialogue Platform on Road Safety (SaferAfrica) Horizons 2020 project has been recently issued with the active contribution of NTUA. This edition highlights the African “ownership” of the African Road Safety Observatory, Role for NGOs, SaferAfrica Thematic Factsheets and new resources.  Statistics Corner Greece continues with impressive ten-year road fatalities decrease, 2018 Road fatalities in Greece in 2018 presented, for second year in a row, a significant decrease (5.6%) compared to 2017 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease could be attributed not only to the fact that Greece is still under the effect of the economic crisis but also due to the fact that over the past two years, more than 500 km of new or upgraded motorways have replaced national roads with high road fatalities rates.  During the last decade, Greece presents the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 56% and a decrease of serious injuries of 60%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 59% since 2008. Our Publications Open Science in Transport presentation at BeOpen, Brussels, 2019 Prof. George Yannis made a presentation about “Open Science in Transport” at the kick-off meeting of the BeOpen, Horizon 2020 project, which took place in Brussels in 14 February 2019.   BeOpen aims to create a common understanding on the practical impact of Open Science and to identify and put in place the mechanisms to make it a reality in transport research. Road Safety constitutes a major component of this Open Science in Transport initiative. 47th International Neuropsychological Society Annual Meeting, New York, 2019 The International Neuropsychological Society organised the 47th Annual Meeting which took place with great success in New York from February 20-23, 2019. The topics of the Meeting included clinical neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychiatry and internationally renowned, innovative, and pioneering scientists and clinicians from multiple disciplines gave very interesting presentations. NTUA actively contributed with the following interdisciplinary presentation merging two scientific domains – neuroscience and road safety:  Intraindividual variability within and across conditions in driving simulator measures of healthy drivers of different ages  Intraindividual variability within and across conditions in driving simulator measures of neurology patients and healthy drivers Modelling the economic impact of road accidents in Greece, 2018 A Diploma Thesis titled “Modelling the economic impact of road accidents in Greece” was presented by Eleftherios-Marios Kourtis in July 2018. The objective of this Diploma Thesis is the estimation of the human cost of road accidents based on the “Willingness-to-Pay” (WTP) methodology, and the identification of drivers attitudes towards the probability of getting involved in a road accident, using the “Stated Preference” method. The results demonstrate a positive correlation between the number of road accidents that a driver was involved so far and the annual amount that is willing to invest. Furthermore, based on the WTP methodology, the road accident fatality human cost in Greece was estimated at 1.761 million euros.   Events FEHRL – Infrastructure Research Meeting (FIRM19), Brussels, 2019 The FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting 2019 (FIRM19) will take place on 26-28 March 2019 in Brussels, Belgium. The theme is “On-Ramp to innovation: Let’s co-create together our future transport infrastructure“ and it coincides with the celebration of the 30th anniversary of FEHRL. The main stakeholders (EC, CEDR, PIARC, ERTRAC, ECTP) are expected to outline the vision for the future cross-modal transport infrastructure and its implementation plan.  TUM – International Scientific Conference on Mobility and Transport (Mobil.TUM), Munich, 2019 The Focus Area Mobility & Transportation Systems of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are organising the International Scientific Conference on Mobility and Transport (mobil.TUM 2019) which will take place on 11-12 September 2019, in Munich, Germany. The theme of the conference is Transportation Systems of the Future. Road safety will be one of the key discussion areas enabling inspiration from the latest innovations and exploring new directions for shaping the future of urban mobility and safety.  30th POLIS Conference – Brussels, 2019 The 2019 Polis Conference will take place on 27 and 28 November 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, organised by POLIS, the European Cities Network, celebrating the network’s 30th anniversary. The conference will provide an opportunity for cities, metropolitan areas and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large audience, and for the wider transport community to engage with representatives of local and regional authorities on innovative transport solutions.  Transport Research Arena – Research Awards TRAVisions 2020 TRAVisions concerns two competitions for transport research awards to be announced in a prestigious award ceremony at the Transport Research Arena Conference on 27-30th April 2020 in Helsinki (abstract submission deadline: 30/06/2019):    TRAVisions 2020 Young Researcher Competition, an academic student competition with the goal of stimulating the interest among young researchers and students in the field of sustainable surface transport TRAVisions 2020 Senior Researcher Competition, a competition for senior researchers in the field of innovative surface transport concepts based on results only from EU-funded projects HIT/HITE/Hellastron – Road Safety Awards in Greece, 2019 The Road Safety Awards in Greece were established in 2018 by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE), HELLASTRON and the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT). This year, two awards have been announced: the first one concerns the “Best Road Safety Young Researcher Publication” addressed to students, graduates, postgraduate, doctoral or postdoctoral researchers and the second one concerns the “Best Road Safety Action” addressed to Organisations and Institutes.