On 25 May 2016, SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, the Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), organized a high-level debate on road safety in the beautiful city of The Hague.
The road safety challenge in Europe is enormous. In 2015, around 26,000 people died in road traffic and 135,000 were seriously injured. Many European countries experienced an increase in casualties.
The Netherlands are facing the challenge of ensuring safety of cycling in highly populated cities (“Randstad”) and tackling road safety issues related to ageing society. On Dutch roads, the number of deaths rose with almost 9% to 621. The long term safety trend in reducing the number of road deaths, however, has been positive, in particular for car occupants who have benefited more than cyclists or pedestrians from road safety measures adopted over the past decade.
The high-level debate aimed to address road safety research questions, to share knowledge and experience, and to discuss road safety opportunities offered by vehicle automation. Key-note speakers included Patrick Mercier-Handisyde, Research Programme Manager with DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission, and Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of ETSC. As the Netherlands currently holds the EU Presidency, the Deputy Director-General for Mobility and Director for Roads and Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Marjolijn Sonnema, stressed the need for international knowledge sharing.
Links to the program and presentations can be found here.
