The European Commission have published a leaflet entitled, ‘How is your country doing?’. This leaflet shows the situation at the end of 2010 and the progress made since 2001. Its purpose is to allow Member States and European citizens to compare their situation and to encourage them to continue their efforts regarding road safety. It can be downloaded at YOURS.
The leaflet acts as a reminder that although road crashes have reduced in Europe since 2001, there is still a lot to do and lots of lives to save. The leaflet offers an illustrative understanding of how countries are doing with regards to road crash and road fatality reduction across Europe.
Road crashes still the biggest killer of young people.
Young people are still the most affected group with regards to road crashes as road fatalities remain the biggest killer of young people around the world. With regards to Europe, young people are affected disproportionately and a further breakdown of <25 is given recognition where 18-24 year old age bracket remains the most affected. There is still a lot of work needed to reduce these numbers and YOURS acts to do just that.
While the amount of road crashes have reduced consecutively since 2001, Europe is still to reach its targets with regards to reduction of road crashes and fatalities. However, concerted effort for road safety over the past decade has seen positive results and this illustrates that road safety action can have dramatic effects on road crashes.
More interestingly, the amount of cars on the road has increased although road crashes are decreasing. Across the world, this trend is not the same for low and middle income countries (LMCs) which is why YOURS is undertaking extra efforts in these areas.
The leaflet is available to download in the attachments section and will be particularly useful to delegates of the European Youth Forum for Road Safety.