Our Regional Coordinator for Europe, Ms Ana Rita Lavado has shared information about her region, Europe. A press release issued by EUROPA indicates that Europe has seen its second ‘good’ year for road safety putting Europe firmly on track to hit its road safety targets.

2013 is the second year in a row that saw an impressive decrease in the number of people killed on Europe’s roads. According to preliminary figures, the number of road fatalities has decreased by 8% compared to 2012, following the 9% decrease between 2011 and 2012. This means that the EU is now in a good position for reaching the strategic target of halving road deaths between 2010 and 2020. Road safety is one of the big success stories of Europe. The 17% decrease since 2010 means that some 9000 lives have been saved.

Vice-President Siim Kallas, EU Commissioner for mobility and transport, said:

Country by country statistics (see table here) show that the number of road deaths still varies greatly across the EU. On average, there were 52 road deaths per million inhabitants in the EU. The countries with the lowest number of road fatalities remain the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, reporting around 30 deaths per million inhabitants. Notably Spain, Germany and Slovakia have improved their positions on the list, moving in among the traditional top performers.

Those Member States that have made progress but whose road fatality figures are still much higher than the EU average (Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania and Greece) are encouraged to strengthen their efforts. The situation in Latvia, where the road safety situation unfortunately did not improve at all during the past year, merits particular attention; the number of road fatalities also increased in Malta and Luxembourg although the total numbers in these countries are so small that the big fluctuations from one year to the other are not statistically significant.

Another worrying feature of the statistics is the situation of vulnerable road users: The number of pedestrians killed is decreasing to a lesser extent than expected and the number of cyclists killed has recently even been increasing. This is partly due to the fact that more and more people cycle; the challenge for Member States is to encourage people to use their bicycles rather than their cars more often, but to make sure that the shift from car to bicycle is a safe one.

EU Road safety action programme 2011–2020
The European Road Safety Action Programme 2011–2020 (see MEMO/10/343) sets out challenging plans to reduce the number of road deaths on Europe’s roads by half in 10 years. It contains ambitious proposals focusing on making improvements to vehicles, infrastructure and road users’ behaviour.

For example, key recent initiatives include the new European driving licence (IP 13/25) and the entry into force of the cross-border enforcement directive, for the pursuit of traffic offences across borders (1). A proposal for improved technical checks of cars has been adopted by the European Parliament (MEMO 14/637), and a major step has been taken towards a strategy to reduce the number of people seriously injured in road traffic (IP 13/236).

Following the breakthrough last year with a new common EU definition of serious road traffic injuries, EU Member States have now started to collect the first data by the new definition. The data collected during 2014 should be available in early 2015 and preparations can then start on a target for reducing the number of seriously injured in road traffic. From 2015, a strategic target for the reduction of serious road traffic injuries is expected to be adopted. 

This update was provided by Ana Rita Lavado – Regional Coordinator for Europe.

The same technology can also be used to measure tiredness and fatigue, by measuring the percentage of your eyelid closure, and then warning you to take a break before you fall asleep at the wheel.

This work, developed by EPFL’s Signal Processing 5 Laboratory (LTS5) in association with PSA Peugeot Citroen, uses an infrared camera placed behind the car’s steering wheel to track the seven universal hard-coded emotions that your face can show. Fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, and suspicion are so intrinsic to human nature that they have very specific muscle movements — movements that can be fairly easily picked up with an infrared camera and some computer vision software. As you can see in the video below, the software tracks your eyes, mouth, and nose, and from their movements it can work out what emotion you’re currently experiencing.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, based in the United States have opened up a new opportunity for young Americas aged 13-18 to apply for the National Teen Influencers Group to work closely with their organization. Teens will serve as ambassadors for MADD and gain valuable experience in promoting road safety and campaigning empowering teens not to drink and drive before 21 in the country.

Founded in the United States of America by a mother whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, Mothers Against Drunk Driving® (MADD) is the nation’s largest nonprofit working to protect families from drunk driving and underage drinking. MADD also supports drunk and drugged driving victims and survivors at no charge, serving one person every 8.6 minutes through local MADD victim advocates and at 1-877-MADD-HELP

Do you know a teen who is wants to take a stand against underage drinking? MADD is searching  for outstanding teens to lead teens across the nation to take a stand against underage drinking as a part of the 2014-2015 MADD Power of You(th)® National Teen Influencer Group.

Make a difference in your community, and nationwide. Ten teens will be selected to work closely with MADD National staff to shape and create initiatives to empower teens to not drink before 21 or ride in a car with someone who has been drinking.  Teens will also serve as youth ambassadors for MADD within your state and community, which may include speaking with media about MADD’s mission. 

Develop new skills. As a teen influencer, teens will build a network of like-minded peers from across the country and experience leadership skills, media training, effective underage drinking prevention initiatives, and new friendships. 

Help save lives. This position requires time, thought and creativity.  We will meet monthly and ask you to share your ideas, thoughts and passion with the Group. The biggest reward is the opportunity to positively influence teens across the nation and help save lives!

MADD is looking  for outstanding teens to lead teens across the nation to take a stand against underage drinking as a part of the 2014-2015 Power of You(th)® National Teen Influencer Group, nationally sponsored by State Farm®. This position requires time, thought and creativity. The biggest reward, however, is the opportunity to positively influence teens across the nation and help save lives!

To be eligible to participate you must:

• Be 13-18 years old.
• Be enrolled as a full time student in an accredited high school, private school or home school program during the 2014-2015 school year.
• Be a citizen or legal resident of the United States.
• Commit to participate for one year in monthly meetings. Most will be via phone, but there may be the opportunity for at least one face-to-face meeting (travel scholarships provided).
• Have an email address that you can access and utilize on a regular basis.
• Be a role model and a positive influence on teens.
• Serve when needed as a teen media representative for MADD.
• Commit to be drug and alcohol free. Learn more about becoming a MADD National Teen Influencer.

MADD are accepting applications online now, through May 21st for the 2014-2015 National Teen Influencer Group. Help us spread the word to teens that are involved in significant underage drinking prevention work in your community.

These are the results of an AA-Populus poll of 17,629 drivers. A previous AA-Populus poll showed 85 per cent of drivers think motorcyclists are sometimes hard to see and more than half (57%) are often ‘surprised when a motorcycle appears from nowhere’.

As a result of these findings the AA and the AA Charitable Trust have got together, with support from British Cycling and The Motorcycle Industry Association, to launch a national ‘Think Bikes!’ awareness campaign