| Single minded |
|
|
|
||||||
That’s the view of Max Mosley, president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of world motor sport and the international association of motoring organisations, chairman of the European New Car Assessment Programme and chairman of ERTICO Intelligent Transport Systems, who has been involved in road safety issues in the EU for almost a decade, and claims road safety has a low priority in the EU. He is conscious to be supportive of the European Union’s Road Safety Action Plan that, by 2010, aims to see a 50% reduction in the 40,000 people killed and 1.7 million people injured annually on Europe’s roads, and the EU’s proposal to launch a Road Safety Charter. Mr Mosley describes these as important incremental steps towards a safe road system, but he says there is a risk of complacency. While Mr Mosley applauds actions taken during the last decade that have begun to reduce significantly the numbers of people killed and injured on Europe’s roads, he believes that the EU institutions are still failing to take the action necessary to make death on the roads a rare and exceptional incident rather than a daily occurrence. He says: “There is a risk of complacency, perhaps engendered by recent progress. Consistent reductions in the number of deaths and injuries in some major countries of Western Europe are indeed encouraging, but they also conceal significant differences across the EU. If every member state could achieve the level of the best we would see an immediate reduction of 20,000 deaths – the 2010 target achieved today. This shows clearly how far we are from safe roads in many EU Member States.” And, he claims, the likelihood of ten new countries joining the EU next year will significantly disrupt the gently-improving trend in road safety. “After the end of the Cold War, many East and Central European countries experienced a sharp increase in road traffic deaths and injuries. In recent years, this negative trend began to stabilise. “But the latest available figures for 2002 show the level of fatalities growing again, probably as a result of economic growth and rising levels of motorisation,” he claims. “The road traffic deaths of the new Member States will certainly push the EU's total fatalities above 50,000 per year and injuries to more than two million. Facing this challenge one must ask the question, ‘Is road safety really getting the attention it deserves?’ On the basis of my experience of working on these issues in the EU, the answer is quite clearly, ‘No it is not’. ” Mr Mosley continues: “Despite a clear and unambiguous legal base, road safety has a low priority among the EU institutions.” Mr Mosley highlights how: • The Road Safety Action Plan was only adopted by the European Commission this summer having been delivered a year late. Now the European Parliament is following the Commission's example and has delayed scrutiny of the document until after next year’s European elections, meaning another year lost • There remains a major problem of co-ordination between Directorate Generals (DGs) within the European Commission that results in policy delay, confusion and conflict. Vehicle safety standards are the responsibility of one DG, action to promote seatbelt use is the role of another. Meanwhile, one DG publishes a communication on telematics and road safety, another publishes a road safety action plan. During early stages in the preparation of these documents, he says, the different DGs worked in entirely different directions, with officials barely talking to one another. • The EC only began supporting Euro NCAP a year after its creation. • In 2000, the Commission estimated that Euro NCAP had become the most cost-effective road safety action available to the EU. It commented that it had brought forward the benefits of the new crash test legislation introduced in 1998 by five years and now acknowledged that it has raised the standards of industry best practice even higher. This year the Commission stated that “cars awarded five stars had a 36% lower intrinsic fatal accident risk than vehicles which were simply designed to meet the legal standard”. But, until mid-October, the EC owed Euro NCAP €300,000 for tests carried out in 2001. Faced with insolvency, Euro NCAP secured payment only after its Board threatened to cease all future co-operation with the Commission. Euro NCAP has not been paid in full – €50,000 continues to be owed. • The Commission delayed introducing Directives for front and side impact crash test standards despite the fact that it had funded research and, by 1985, knew exactly what standards were required. It was only in 1998, after years of intensive lobbying of the European Parliament by the FIA, member clubs and other safety groups that the EU adopted the appropriate crash test Directives. It is this legislation that is the basis of the tests used by Euro NCAP.
“I would like to propose radical change. Road safety should be given the urgent priority it deserves. Responsibility for it should be established in a single Directorate or agency that can deal with all the relevant issues, combining vehicle standards, telematics, passive and active safety,” he says. “One political figure should be made accountable for road safety promotion within the EU. He or she should publish an annual report on road safety that includes league tables that clearly show which Member States are performing badly.” Mr Mosley says models for the reorganisation he was proposing already existed in the shape of the Swedish National Road Administration and, in the US, the National Highway Safety Administration. Therefore, he questions why not establish a European Road Safety Agency with responsibility for EU road safety standards up to those already in place in the safest Member States? He concludes: “If a terrorist organisation announced that it was going to kill 50,000 of our fellow citizens next year; to eliminate by violence 137 people every day, what would the European Council decide to do? Would they add the subject as a minor part of a Commissioner's portfolio, authorise the establishment of a modest unit within a DG and ask it to report back in 2010? I don't think so. The response would be on a par with 9/11, it would be overwhelming. So should it be for 50,000 road deaths. “Let’s stop being complacent, let’s extend our horizons, and recognise the need for radical change. Let’s find new ways to work together for safe roads in Europe.” Based on a speech delivered on 23 October 2003 by Max Mosley at the 1st International Road Safety Exhibition in Verona, Italy. |
||||||
| |
