Cuts to police enforcement across Europe is damaging for road safety. This is the conclusion in two reports published by the European Road Safety Council (ETSC) on June 20th. Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council said that cuts to police enforcement are doubly damaging: “Fewer dangerous drivers are caught, and overall perception of the risk of being caught also decreases”.
Last year more than 26,000 people died on roads of the European Union; the first increase since 2001. Exceeding speed limits, drink or distracted driving and a failure to wear a seat belt are still the leading causes of death and serious injury across Europe, according to the researchers. Last year, the Netherlands counted 621 road deaths, 9% more than the previous year.
In recent years fewer and fewer speeding tickets have been issued in the Netherlands; the same has been the case in Sweden and Finland. These countries have also seen the largest stagnation in reducing the number of deaths since 2010. The Netherlands is now on the 9th place in the European list of road deaths per million inhabitants; Norway, Malta and Sweden lead the list of safe countries.
SWOV: traffic enforcement in Netherlands is under pressure
Although there is political consensus on a stricter approach to repeat offenders of serious traffic violations, road safety in our country is no national enforcement priority. Peter van der Knaap: "the number of police stops in 2015 amounted to only 17% of the number in 2007 and declined from 1.46 million to 0.24 million per year. The number of speeding tickets for offences recorded by speed cameras also decreased by almost 30%, from 9.6 million to 6.6 million per year". SWOV finds a realistic chance of apprehension indispensable for both an effective recidivism approach and a progressive penalty system.
To the ETSC PIN Flash report How traffic law enforcement can contribute to safer roads
To the ETSC PIN annual report Ranking EU progress on road safety
To the SWOV Fact sheet Police traffic enforcement and Progressive penalty systems in traffic
