A Diploma Thesis titled “Self-assessment and Road Behaviour” was recently presented by Mikaela Panagiotopoulou. The aim of the Diploma Thesis is to relate self-assessment and other characteristics of drivers with parameters of their road behavior. To achieve this goal, a pilot simulator experiment was conducted and a questionnaire was filled in a sample of 125 drivers. The application of the models revealed that the drivers who have positively self-assessed their driving abilities drive faster and showcase speedy reaction time. The drivers in general, evaluated realistically their driving skills with an exception when it came to the safety driving measures which were: keeping an adequate headway from the vehicle in front, accurately adjusting their speed on different driving conditions, maintaining speed limits. 
A Diploma Thesis titled “Greek drivers’ attitudes towards aggressive driving” was recently presented by Aggeliki Stefatou. The objective of this Diploma Thesis is the investigation of the characteristics of driver aggressiveness in Greece via their perceptions on their own behavior and the behavior of other drivers. Specifically, within the framework of the SafeCulture survey, the answers of 302 car drivers and 201 two-wheeler drivers on 8 questions regarding speed, 6 questions regarding overtaking behavior and aggressiveness and 4 questions regarding alcohol consumption were analyzed. Results indicate that drivers do not perceive traditional crash factors as causes for their crash involvement. The only contributing factors perceived by drivers was found to be those involving driver overtaking behavior and aggressiveness.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Spatial analysis of driver safety behavior using data from smartphones” was recently presented by Ilias Parmaksizoglou. Smartphone driver behaviour data were processed in a GIS computer environment, resulting to the development of new tables describing the phenomena observed on the map of a major road axis in Athens, in nodes and links. Analytic maps were developed aiming to indicate patterns of the accumulation and ranking of the harsh events in the selected road axis. Finally, four linear regression models were developed, which demonstrated speed as the most statistically significant factor in predicting harsh events per day on a region basis.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of economic, social and transport indicators on road safety during the crisis period in Europe” was recently presented by Valentina Vassili. The objective of this Diploma Thesis is to investigate the impact of economic, social and transport indicators on road safety before and after the crisis period in Europe. For this analysis a database containing Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP), motorway-kilometers per road network-kilometers, vehicle fleet per population and road fatalities for European states for 2000-2016 was developed. The results led to the conclusion that Gross Domestic Index per capita has the most important impact and its increase leads to road fatalities decrease. Moreover, the increase of motorway-kilometers per road network positively affects the road fatalities decrease.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Identification of critical driving parameters affecting speeding using data from smartphones” was recently presented by Aris Kokkinakis. The aim of this Diploma Thesis is to identify the critical driving parameters that affect speeding using data from smartphones. To achieve this objective, data collected from sixty- eight drivers who participated at a naturalistic driving experiment for fifteen months are analyzed. The analysis was carried out with the use of statistical method of linear regression. The results revealed that all six parameters, distance, high intensity harsh accelerations and brakings, harsh cornerings, average deceleration and mobile usage, were statistically significant in the regression models. For the general model, the number of high intensity harsh brakings had the most significant impact, whereas for each type of road separately, distance was the most significant parameter.
On March 27, 2019 in Ljubljana, the Interreg funded RADAR project organised the first Road Safety Expert Group meeting focusing on Safer Roads Investment Plans. Special emphasis was given into optimisation of using limited road investment and road safety investment funds, by supporting most cost-benefit effective engineering solutions at the most appropriate locations / road sections. 
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: Key points for Road Sections Safety in Greece
The 2019 International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury Europe Conference will take place in Florence, Italy, on 11-13 September 2019. The focus of IRCOBI is on the avoidance and reduction of the severity of traffic accidents, with special emphasis on advanced safety technologies and the biomechanics of injury.
The Romanian EU Presidency, the Ministry of Transport of Romania and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised the International Road Safety Conference with great success in Bucharest on 20-21 March, 2019. Special focus was given on promoting and accelerating the implementation of effective road safety solutions, including digitalisation and innovation, reduction of serious injuries, speed management and infrastructure safety. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: Progress in MAIS3+ Serious Injuries Data Collection
The EU institutions have reached a provisional political agreement on the revised General Safety Regulation. As of 2022 new safety technologies will become mandatory in European vehicles to protect passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. Key new technologies include intelligent speed assistance, lane-keeping assistance, advanced emergency braking, warning driver drowsiness and distraction, reversing safety with camera or sensors and data recorder in case of an accident (black box). Advanced safety features will reduce the number of accidents (90% of which are due to human error), pave the way towards increasingly connected and automated mobility, and boost the global innovation and competitiveness edge of the European car industry.
The 32nd ICTCT conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland on 24-25th October 2019, under the main topic “Vision zero for traffic fatalities and serious injuries – research questions and challenges”. ICTCT approaches safety as an integral part of the wider road traffic system, envisaging all transport modes with a specific emphasis on vulnerable road users. The Abstract submission deadline is set for 31 May 2019.
The European Commission adopted recently new rules stepping up the deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) on Europe’s roads. The new technology will allow vehicles to ‘talk’ to each other, to the road infrastructure and to other road users – for instance about dangerous situations, road works and the timing of traffic lights, making road transport safer, cleaner and more efficient. The new rules are in line with the proposals on clean mobility introduced by the Juncker Commission, are a further step for modernising the European mobility sector, preparing it for climate neutrality in the second half of the century and contributing to the EU’s long-term goal of moving close to zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050 (“Vision Zero”).
The Road Safety Authority of Ireland (RSA) is organising the Annual Conference under the theme “International Best Practice in Road Safety Strategy Development” which will take place in Dublin on 13 June 2019. This year’s conference will look at international developments and the benefits of a strategic approach to road safety. The speakers will share their expertise and experiences in the development of best practice in road safety strategy formulation and performance measures. The speakers will be from a variety of backgrounds including operational, academic and policy development. The Conference will be a precursor to the development of the next Government Road Safety Strategy.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2018 presented, for second year in a row, a significant decrease (5.6%) compared to 2017 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease could be attributed not only to the fact that Greece is still under the effect of the economic crisis but also due to the fact that over the past two years, more than 500 km of new or upgraded motorways have replaced national roads with high road fatalities rates. 
During the last decade, Greece presents the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 56% and a decrease of serious injuries of 60%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 59% since 2008.
A paper titled “Review and ranking of crash risk factors related to the road infrastructure” authored by Eleonora Papadimitriou, Ashleigh Filtness, Akis Theofilatos, Apostolis Ziakopoulos, Claire Quigley and George Yannis is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. This analysis was carried out within the SafetyCube project, which aimed to identify and quantify the effects of risk factors and measures related to behaviour, infrastructure or vehicles, and integrate the results in an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS). Synthesis of results was made through 39 ‘Synopses’ (including 4 original meta-analyses) on individual risk factors or groups of risk factors. This analysis allowed the ranking of infrastructure risk factors into three groups: risky (11 risk factors), probably risky (18 risk factors), and unclear (7 risk factors). 
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BeOpen aims to create a common understanding on the practical impact of Open Science and to identify and put in place the mechanisms to make it a reality in transport research. Road Safety constitutes a major component of this Open Science in Transport initiative.
The International Neuropsychological Society organised the 47th Annual Meeting which took place with great success in New York from February 20-23, 2019. The topics of the Meeting included clinical neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychiatry and internationally renowned, innovative, and pioneering scientists and clinicians from multiple disciplines gave very interesting presentations. NTUA actively contributed with the following interdisciplinary presentation merging two scientific domains – neuroscience and road safety:
The Saudi Arabia General Directorate of Traffic organized the Traffic Safety Conference (TSC 2019) which took place with great success in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 11-13 March 2019. The theme of the conference was “Enhancement of Traffic Safety” which is one of the main objectives of Saudi National Transformation Program 2020 and in line with Saudi Vision 2030: an ambitious Nation by reaching high standards in safe driving. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: Traffic Safety in the European Union
Every year Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina), loses many valuable human lives and incurs enormous economic costs caused by road accidents. The Traffic Safety Agency of Republic of Srpska in cooperation with the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) are organizing the 8th International Conference Road Safety in Local Community, which will take place in Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska on 24-25 October 2019 aiming to constantly strengthen and develop capacities at the local level and create groups of road safety experts who will have enough enthusiasm, courage and will to fight with this problem facing the country.
HUMANIST is organising “HUMANIST Summer School 2019“, which is going to be held in Lyon, France on 9-11 July 2019. The Humanist Summer School 2019 will provide good insight into research in the area of Human Factors issues linked to the autonomous car challenge. The Summer School is a meeting place for Young and Senior Researchers, PhD or Professionals and offers plenty of opportunities to interact.
The 4th Newsletter of the African-European Dialogue Platform on Road Safety (SaferAfrica) Horizons 2020 project has been recently issued with the active contribution of NTUA. This edition highlights the African “ownership” of the African Road Safety Observatory, Role for NGOs, SaferAfrica Thematic Factsheets and new resources.
The European Council reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a proposal to strengthen road infrastructure management to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries. The reform will extend the scope of the current rules to motorways and other primary roads beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). Furthermore, it introduces a network-wide road safety assessment, which is a snapshot of the entire road network covered by the Directive used to evaluate accident risk and the Authorities will use the findings to carry out more targeted road safety inspections or take direct remedial action. It will become mandatory to take systematic account of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users in road safety management procedures. The draft directive amending directive on road infrastructure safety management is available:
The Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering Doboj, University of East Sarajevo, is organizing the 7th international conference New Horizons of Transport and Communications, which will be held on November 29-30, 2019 in Doboj, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, University of East Sarajevo. Conference attendees will have the chance to present their work on current traffic policy, sustainability and development strategy in the field of transport and traffic engineering, examples of good practice worldwide, solutions of respective problems in transport, scientific results, new models of technology and other achievements.
TRAVisions concerns two competitions for transport research awards to be announced in a prestigious award ceremony at the Transport Research Arena Conference on 27-30th April 2020 in Helsinki (abstract submission deadline: 1/10/2019): 
- TRAVisions 2020 Young Researcher Competition, an academic student competition with the goal of stimulating the interest among young researchers and students in the field of sustainable surface transport
- TRAVisions 2020 Senior Researcher Competition, a competition for senior researchers in the field of innovative surface transport concepts based on results only from EU-funded projects
The Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), launched the GRSF 2018 Annual Report, highlighting its excellent record of delivery and long term funding for road safety. GRSF is a global partnership program administered by the World Bank, which was established in 2006 with a mission to help address the growing crisis of road traffic deaths and injuries in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) is organizing the 8th International Symposium on Naturalistic Driving Research (NDRS 2019) which will be held in Melbourne, Australia on August 13-14, 2019. The 8th International Naturalistic Driving Research Symposium will provide with an overview of international naturalistic driving and riding studies and insight into the next generation of this type of studies, in addition to the opportunity to interact with panelists to discuss naturalistic driving in their respective countries.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 36th PIN Flash Report “Reducing Speeding in Europe“, with the active contribution of NTUA. The EU has the exclusive authority to set minimum safety standards for all new vehicles sold on the EU market. One of the main goals of this PIN Flash Report is to highlight the proposed standards which include mandatory fitment of overridable Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) on all cars, vans, buses and heavy goods vehicles. Research shows that this single technology could help to achieve a high level of compliance with speed limits and eventually cut road deaths by 20%.
The United States Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in cooperation with participating ESV member countries are organizing the 26th International Technical Conference on The Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) which will take place in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on June 10-13, 2019. ESV provide opportunities to share innovative advances in motor vehicle safety and encourage international cooperation.
The 10th International Conference on the Prevention of Accidents at Work (WOS 2019) will take place in Vienna on 23-26 September 2019. The congress, focusing on the prevention of workplace accidents – WOS: Working on Safety – aims at bringing together experts from all over the world in order to facilitate a high-level exchange of experience, new findings and good practice solutions. The congress will be an excellent occasion for representatives of H&S organizations, labour inspectors, safety professionals, researchers, policy makers, labour administrators and other experts to broaden the personal prevention horizon and to get in touch with experts from other countries and other safety-cultures.
The infographic of the 2018 NTUA Road Safety Observatory (www.nrso.ntua.gr) activities, highlights one more very intensive year, striving with highly scientific expertise to improve road safety in Greece, in Europe and worldwide. The nrso people with excellent dedication, efficiency and expertise were active in 22 innovative research projects, succeeded to publish 67 scientific papers (21 in peer reviewed journals), reached almost 100.000 nrso website page-views, handled more than 115.000 emails and run more than 4.800 km! 
Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991-2017 are summarised in a comprehensive Table prepared by the NTUA Road Safety Observatory (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2007, there are approximately 900 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data a spectacular decrease in road fatalities for children 0-14 years old (-71%), young drivers (-61%) and on motorways (-61%) is observed during the last decade. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited for moped riders (-26%), older drivers (-28%) and at rural (36%) and urban (37%) junctions. 
