SaFe road design 'can save Europe €50bn a year'

Europe could slash its toll of road deaths and serious injuries by a third simply by investing in better road design, according to a new report.

It says such measures could save 150 lives and serious injuries a day and benefit Europe’s economy by €50bn a year.

According to the report by the European Campaign for Safe Road Design, which was launched on Thursday, a third of Europe’s serious injuries or fatalities on the roads are preventable over the next ten years.

All it takes, it says, is a "modest" investment in "simple" safety engineering, primarily in safer road and junction layouts and equipment like safety barriers.

The report comes as the commission reviews its road safety strategy beyond 2010.

In the last 10 years, two million people have been killed or seriously injured on EU roads.

The financial cost of road crashes is two per cent of European GDP annually – more than the amount each of Europe’s nations typically spends on primary schools or doctors.

The report says, "The annual toll of 200,000 deaths and serious injuries a year will continue if effective action is not taken on safe road design, particularly on roads outside major towns where two-thirds road deaths occur.

"Deaths are concentrated on main national or regional roads which can be easily targeted.

Chairman of the campaign, John Dawson says: “A safe road system needs road users who obey traffic law, manufacturers who provide safe vehicles and authorities who provide safe roads.

"European traffic law has been tightening up driver behaviour.  Safety standards of new vehicles have soared from a typical two-star to typical four-star NCAP crash test rating.

"We don’t need new laws.  We need effective large-scale action on what we know works.  We need to make transparent where there are risky roads and to guide to where urgent action is needed. 

“People don’t need to die routinely just because roads are missing simple safety features."

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