According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) road crashes data for 2021 in Greece, 36% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants, whereas 34% of road fatalities are power two wheelers. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas, while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. 
According to the latest Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data for 2021, most road fatalities in Greece occur at daytime, 346 out of 624 total fatalities. At night, inside built-up area with good street lighting occur 125 fatalities and outside built-up area with no street lighting occur 56 fatalities. 
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, among the 624 persons killed in Greece in 2021: 310 were outside built-up areas and 314 were inside built-up areas. Half of fatalities occurred in rural areas. The lowest percentage of fatalities occurs on motorways, despite the significant amount of vehicle kilometers driven. 
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 624 persons were killed in Greece in 2021: 447 drivers, 82 passengers and 95 pedestrians. Males account for 81% of all road fatalities in Greece during the last decade. In 2021, there is no region with female fatality rate over 27%, while males aged 25-49 y.o. account for 33% of all road fatalities. 
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 624 persons were killed in Greece in 2021: 447 drivers, 82 passengers and 95 pedestrians. Since 2020, there is a slight increase in driver fatalities, from 68% to 72% of total road fatalities. In 2021, older pedestrians (65+) account for 44% of pedestrian fatalities and people aged 25-49 y.o. account for 37% of total fatalities. 
Road fatalities in Greece in 2022 presented a slight increase (2%) compared to 2021 figures, according to the provisional ELSTAT data. This slight increase is mainly attributed to the returning back to normal traffic from the pandemic period. During the last decade, Greece presented an impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 28% in road fatalities since 2013 and a decrease of serious injuries of 48%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 33% since 2013. 
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 44th PIN Flash Report titled Reducing Road Deaths among Powered Two Wheeler Users. This Report examines the latest data on PTW user road deaths from across the EU and other countries that form part of ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme. It also looks at the at the main measures for reducing the risks to PTW users including training, licensing, infrastructure, technical inspections, the use of protective equipment and new technologies. 
FERSI expresses its concern that European road safety research is no longer delivering what it ought to, impeding the improvements needed to achieve the European ambitious road safety targets. This position paper details how the structure of road safety research funding in Europe impacts the potential progress that can be made in European road safety and provides some suggestions for solutions.
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with the UK Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) recently published a new Report titled “Recommendations on Safety of E-scooters“. The Report is in response to the rapid growth of e-scooter usage over the last five years and an associated increase in deaths and serious injuries. It takes into account a wide body of available data, hospital studies, vehicle safety testing and research from across Europe and beyond.
The European Commission published preliminary figures on Road safety in the EU, showing that around 20,600 people were killed in road crashes last year, a 3% increase in 2021 as traffic levels recovered after the pandemic. This represents however 2,000 fewer fatalities (-10%) compared with the pre-pandemic year 2019. EU-wide, road deaths in 2022 rose by 3% on the previous year, not least as traffic levels recovered levels following the pandemic. Compared with 2019, the number of deaths in 2022 fell by 10%.
The World Health Organization has released a Road Safety Manual for decision-makers and practitioners concerning Powered Two- and Three-Wheeler (PTW) Safety. This second edition of the Powered- Two and Three-Wheeler Safety Manual offers guidance to help decision makers and practitioners put in place the comprehensive set of laws, regulations and actions needed to save lives. Rooted in new case studies and evidence, including from low- and middle-income countries, it includes guidelines on developing safer roads, ensuring safer mobility for all road users, vehicle safety standards, and actions to improve emergency responses to crashes.
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published a new Report titled “Progress in Reducing Drink-driving and other Alcohol-related Road Deaths in Europe“. This Report aims to provide an updated overview of the drink-driving situation in Europe, covering 30 countries: 25 Member States of the European Union together with the United Kingdom, Israel, Norway, the Republic of Serbia and Switzerland. It looks at country-by-country progress in reducing road deaths attributed to drink-driving over the past decade. A range of recommendations for further tackling drink-driving are included for national governments and the EU institutions throughout this Report.
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 2nd LEARN Flash Report titled “The Role of Education in Reducing Deaths among Children and Youngsters on European Roads“. This Report provides an overview of the road safety of children and youngsters across Europe. It focuses on the progress in reducing road deaths during the past decade (2011-2021) as well as differences in road safety between the different countries, age groups as well as genders. It also provides recommendations to improve the provision and quality of traffic safety and mobility education.
The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2022 “EU Transport in figures”. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.
The Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport produced for the first time ever Road Safety Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all key crash risk factors in Greece, with the active contribution of NTUA. The five KPIs related to road user behavior concern speeding, seatbelt use, helmet use, driving under the influence of alcohol and distraction and demonstrate the basic causes of road crashes in Greece. These KPIs have been incorporated at the new National Road Safety Plan of Greece in order to identify key road safety problems in Greece and to determine the respective solutions, but also for the setting of the 8 road safety KPI targets for the decade (e.g. helmet wearing rate from 79% today, to 90% in 2025 and 95% in 2030).
The International Road Federation (IRF) released the 59th edition of the IRF World Road Statistics 2022 (WRS2022), with data now open to all for free through the IRF WRS Data Warehouse platform, thanks to the generous support of the TotalEnergies Foundation and Michelin Corporate Foundation. The IRF WRS 2022 continues to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2022 includes the latest data covering years 2015 to 2020, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. It includes over 200 road and transport-sector related indicators across 11 sections, covering more than 200 countries and territories.
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 43rd PIN Flash Report titled Reducing Child Deaths on European Roads. This report examines the latest data on child road deaths from across the EU and other countries that form part of ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme. It also looks at the main measures for reducing the risks to children including mobility policies and improved infrastructure, child restraint systems, vehicle safety, helmet use, pre-hospital care and licensing of young drivers who, in some countries, are able to ride a moped or scooter at the age of 14.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 16th edition of PIN Annual Report , with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2022 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place online with great success on 15 June 2022. The EU27 collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 31% over the period 2011-2021, from 28,865 in 2011 to 19,823 in 2021. There were 57,095 fewer deaths on EU roads over the last decade than there would have been if deaths had continued at the same level as in 2011.
The European Commission published preliminary figures on Road safety in the EU, showing that road fatalities in 2021 remain well below pre-pandemic level. EU-wide, road deaths in 2021 rose by 5% on the previous year, although comparisons with 2020 are strongly influenced by the traffic level patterns in each country during the course of the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of road fatalities fell by 17%.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2021 presented a slight increase (4%) compared to 2020 figures, according to the provisional ELSTAT data. This slight increase is mainly attributed to the returning back to normal traffic from the pandemic period. During the last decade, Greece presented an impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 38% in road fatalities since 2012 and a decrease of serious injuries of 60%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 42% since 2012. 
The new Greek Regions interactive road fatalities Infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, based on ELSTAT data for 2019, allows for performance comparisons for different types of road crashes. It is demonstrated that disaggregate data can reveal hidden road safety issues, allowing national and local Authorities to focus on targeted road safety countermeasures. 
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 41st PIN Flash Report titled Reducing road deaths among young people, aged 15 to 30. This Report looks at the progress made in Europe in reducing road deaths among young people. It is based on the latest available data from the 32 EU and non-EU countries that participate in ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, examining trends over time as well as differences between countries, which are very significant.
The new EU road fatalities interactive infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, based on European Commission CARE data for 2019, allows for performance comparisons for different types of road crashes. It is demonstrated that disaggregate data can reveal hidden road safety problems, allowing national Authorities to focus on targeted road safety countermeasures. 
The International Road Federation (IRF) released the 58th edition of the IRF World Road Statistics 2021 (WRS2021) which continues to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2021 (data 2014-2019) includes up-to-date information for more than 200 countries and 180+ indicators, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. Split into 11 sections, it includes key data on topics such as Road Networks, Multimodal Traffic, Road Expenditures & Revenues, Road Traffic, Vehicles in Use, Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions and Road Accidents, and much more.
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) road crashes data for 2019 in Greece, 29% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants, whereas 33% of road fatalities are power two wheelers. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. Crash severity is five times higher outside built-up areas for all transport modes. 
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data for 2019, the majority of road crashes and fatalities in Greece occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. However, both road crashes and fatalities share outside built-up areas is much higher during rainy conditions than normal conditions of clear sky. Furthermore, crash severity is increased by almost 20% during raining. 
According to the latest Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data for 2019, most road fatalities in Greece occur at daytime and at night with good street lighting inside built-up area, or with no street lighting outside built-up area. Crash severity is increased 3 to 5 times more at night with no street lighting, but also at night crashes outside built-up areas. 
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) final road crash data for 2019, come off the road and at angle collisions are the two most common crash types outside built-up areas. Pedestrian crashes, at angle collisions, come off the road and side impact collisions are the most common crashes types inside built-up areas. Crash severity is more than 7 times higher outside built-up areas at pedestrian crashes. 
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 15th edition of PIN Annual Report , with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2021 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place online with great success on 16 June 2021. While the collective EU road death reduction target for 2020 was not met, all countries made improvements, and saved lives by trying to reach it. Only Greece reached the target with a 54% reduction in road deaths. Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Austria and Hungary achieved a decrease above the EU average of 37%, while the other countries progressed to a lesser extent. The progress was slowest in the Netherlands with a 5% decrease and the UK with 14%.
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, among the 688 persons killed in Greece in 2019: 318 were outside built-up areas and 370 were inside built-up areas. 53% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than 80% of road crashes and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, crash severity is 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 688 persons were killed in Greece in 2019: 470 drivers, 73 passengers and 145 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 64% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 15% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for 46% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher crash severity was found in crashes involving older persons (6.2 fatalities per 100 crashes) and young people 15-24 years old (3.3 fatalities per 100 crashes). 
Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991-2019 are summarised in a comprehensive Table prepared by the NTUA Road Safety Observatory (data source: ELSTAT). According to these time series data a spectacular decrease in road fatalities for children 0-14 years old (-60%), young drivers (-54%) and outside built-up areas (-52%) is observed during the last decade. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited (but important) for older drivers (-24%) and pedestrians (-19%). 
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory based on preliminary European Commission DG-Move data for 2020, Sweden ranked first in 2020 with 18 fatalities/mil. inhabitants followed by Malta (21) and Denmark (27), whereas Greece ranked 20th (54) and Romania ranked last (85). 13 countries had a better performance than the EU average of 42 fatalities/mil. inhabitants. Greece was the only country that achieved the decade 2010-2020 target of 50% road fatalities reduction, with a performance of -52%. 
The Transport Community published statistics on road fatalities in 2020 for the Western Balkans’ regional participants, which show that the numbers of road fatalities per million inhabitants are higher in the Western Balkans than the EU average, highlighting the need for intensification of efforts for all pillars of road safety.
A paper titled “Which factors lead to driving errors? A structural equation model analysis through a driving simulator experiment” authored by Panagiotis Papantoniou, George Yannis and Eleni Christofa is published in Journal of IATSS. Data were obtained from a driving simulation experiment in which 95 participants covering all ages were asked to drive under different types of distraction (no distraction, conversation with passenger, cell phone use) in rural and urban road environment, as well as in both low and high traffic conditions. Structural Equation Models were developed and the driving error was modeled as a latent variable based on several individual driving simulator parameters. The results of this complex model reveal that the impact of driver characteristics and area type are the only statistically significant factors affecting the probability of driving errors. Interestingly, neither conversing with a passenger nor talking on the cell phone have a statistically significant impact on driving error behaviour which highlights the importance of the present analysis and more specifically the development of a measure that represents overall driving error behaviour instead of individual driving errors variables. 
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report titled: Road Crash Trauma, Climate Change, Pollution and the Total Costs of Speed: Six graphs that tell the story. The purpose of this Report is to provide information on the relationships relevant to fundamental road transport policies, design, and operation. Well-established evidence shows the importance of managing travel speeds for road safety, for efficiency, for improved inclusion, and for greenhouse gas and other emissions.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2020 presented a significant decrease (16%) compared to 2019 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease is mainly attributed to the traffic restrictions due to the pandemic.
During the last decade, Greece presented the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 54% in road fatalities since 2010, achieving its target of halving road fatalities in 2020 compared to 2010. Serious injuries were reduced by 72% and the rate fatalities per vehicles was decreased by 56% since 2010. 
EuroRAP together with RSI Panos Mylonas, delivered to the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport two maps with the most dangerous roads in Greece. The maps were presented within the framework of the SLAIN project, which aims at enhancing Road Safety at the European Road Network. At these maps, Greek roads risk level is depicted in different colors, based on accidents frequency and quantitative risk assessment.
The World Health Organization has released an information resource for decision-makers and practitioners titled “Cyclist safety”, which describes the magnitude of cyclist death and injury, the key risk factors, and effective interventions. The document stresses the importance of a comprehensive, holistic approach that includes legislation, enforcement and behavioural measures specifically for cyclists, design of the built environment, as well as integrating cyclist safety into overall road safety and transport strategies.
The IRF Data Warehouse is a web-based global road data platform and warehouse that can complement and support national and regional efforts to collect and manage data. The IRF Data Warehouse also contributes to capacity-building and advocacy activities on a number of topics and in particular, road safety. The entire time series of the IRF World Road Statistics enables immediate and effective data analysis and is complemented by a series of dashboards and interactive data visualisation tools.
Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991-2018 are summarised in a comprehensive Table prepared by the NTUA Road Safety Observatory (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2008, there are approximately 850 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 (-68%) and outside built-up areas (-59%) is observed during the last decade. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited (but important) for older drivers (-22%), moped riders (-34%), and at junctions inside built-up areas (-35%). 
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Monitoring Progress in Urban Road Safety Report”, tracking progress in reducing the number of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in cities since 2010. It presents traffic safety data collected in 48 cities participating in the ITF Safer City Streets network and compares urban with national road safety trends. It provides indicators for the risk of traffic death for different road user groups, thereby enhancing the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the Road Safety Annual Report 2020, which provides an overview of road safety performance for 42 IRTAD countries. Based on the latest data, the report describes recent road safety developments in these countries and compares their performance against the main road safety indicators. This year, a highly interesting special section on the impact of covid-19 pandemic on road accidents is added. NTUA has contributed to the detailed report for Greece.
Since 56 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continues to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2020 (data 2013-2018) covers over 200 countries, 100 indicators, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. This year a variety of new packages are offered comprising the WRS Book, the WRS Excel file and the IRF Data Warehouse (in cooperation with Total Foundation), an online platform allowing data visualisation and comparisons between countries/ indicators.
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory based on ETSC 2020 PIN Annual Report data, Sweden ranked first in 2019 with 22 fatalities/mil. inhabitants and 17th in terms of last decade reduction (-21%), whereas Romania ranked last, with 96 fatalities/mil. inhabitants and 22nd in terms of last decade reduction (-18%). 14 countries have a better performance than the EU average in terms of last decade road fatalities reduction, with Luxembourg and Greece sitting on top of the list with a reduction of more than 42% over the last decade. 
According to the ELSTAT road accidents data for 2018 in Greece, 38% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants, whereas 31% of road fatalities are power two wheelers. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. Accident severity is five times higher outside built-up areas for all transport modes. 
According to ELSTAT final road crash data for 2018, come off the road and at angle collisions are the two most common crash types outside built-up areas. Pedestrian accidents, at angle collisions, come off the road and collisions with stopped vehicle are the most common crashes types inside built-up areas. Crash severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas at pedestrian accidents. 
The European Commission has recently published the “Study on the feasibility, costs and benefits of retrofitting advanced driver assistance to improve road safety“, prepared by VTT and Ecorys. This study examined the technical feasibility of various retrofit ADAS systems (voluntarily or mandatory installable) while demonstrated the potential safety impacts of retrofitting the vehicle fleet and presented a cost-benefit assessment for the measures. Detection and warning of pedestrians and cyclists nearby the front or side of the vehicle proved having the highest benefit-cost ratio, as addressing the Vulnerable Road Users safety, being the key current road safety problem.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) published recently the “European Regional Status Report on Road Safety 2019” with the active contribution of NTUA. The European Regional Status Report on Road Safety describes the progress made by Governments in the Region. This Report demonstrates that over 221 people are killed on roads every day in the WHO European Region while thousands more are injured or disabled, with long-lasting effects. People from the eastern part of our Region bear the highest burden of road-traffic mortality and morbidity.
According to ELSTAT data for 2018, the majority of road accidents and fatalities in Greece occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. However, both road accidents and fatalities share outside built-up areas is much higher during rainy conditions than normal conditions of clear sky. Furthermore, accident severity is increased by almost 50% during raining. 
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT data, among the 700 persons killed in Greece in 2018: 333 were outside built-up areas and 367 were inside built-up areas. 51% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than 80% of road accidents and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 700 persons were killed in Greece in 2018: 450 drivers, 104 passengers and 146 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 60% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 15% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 66% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7.5 fatalities per 100 accidents) and young people 15-24 years old (3.3 fatalities per 100 accidents). 
The impressive decrease in road fatality figures in Greece of the last decade paused this year (2019), according to recently published ELSTAT provisional data. Compared to 2018 figures, in 2019 there has been no improvement in fatalities. However, during the last decade, Greece presents the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 44% and a decrease of serious injuries of 63%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 44% since 2010. It is noted that 2019 and 2015, two election years in Greece, together with 2016, were the only years since 2004 without significant decrease of road fatalities. 
According to the latest ELSTAT data for 2018, most road fatalities in Greece occur at daytime and at night with good street lighting inside built-up area, or with no street lighting outside built-up area. Accident severity is increased 3 to 5 times more at night with no street lighting, but also at night accidents outside built-up areas. 
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 38th PIN Flash Report “How safe is walking and cycling in Europe?“, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report examines the most recent available data on the current safety levels of cycling and walking across the EU and other countries that provide data to ETSC as part of its Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, and it concludes with recommendations for action at EU. It is highlighted that for a serious shift to walking and cycling, particularly for local journeys in densely populated areas, the very design of urban spaces will need to change. Motorised traffic will need to slow down when it comes into spaces used by vulnerable road users; separated infrastructure and smart intersection design will be essential; school streets without cars may need to become the norm.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the full version of the Road Safety Annual Report 2019, which provides an overview of road safety performance for 41 countries. The report outlines the most recent road safety developments and provides comparative data for the main road safety indicators. It also offers detailed analysis by road user, age group and types of road. It describes the crash data collection process in IRTAD countries, the road safety strategies and targets in place and information on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour.
Since 55 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2019 (data 2012-2017) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. There is highest response rate in years, covering more countries than ever before and a brand new design and layout.
The EU-funded EuroMed Transport Support Project (EuroMed) and World Health Organisation (WHO) released a joint Report titled: “Understanding and bridging the differences between country-reported and WHO-estimated road traffic fatality data“. It focuses on the considerable challenges in collecting complete, accurate and reliable road traffic fatality data that some countries worldwide are facing. Moreover, it attempts to explain the disparity between WHO estimates and country-reported data on road traffic fatality and provide suggestions on what steps countries can take to strengthen their data systems.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 13th edition of PIN Annual Report , with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2019 Annual PIN Conference which took place with great success on 19 June, 2019 in Brussels. According to this PIN Report, the new European figures show that the number of persons killed last year fell by just 1% and the EU target to cut road deaths in half over the decade to 2020 looks well out of reach.
Ireland was the winner of this year’s ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) award, being the second safest EU Member State in 2018, in terms of road mortality (road deaths per million inhabitants) and having moved up five places in the ranking of EU countries since 2010 when it held the 7th place.
A paper titled “Safety Culture among Private and Professional Drivers in Norway and Greece: Examining the Influence of National Road Safety Culture” authored by Tor-Olav Nævestad, Alexandra Laiou, Ross O. Phillips, Torkel Bjørnskau and George Yannis is now published in Safety Journal. This study investigates road safety culture (RSC) as an explanation for this discrepancy by: (1) Comparing the road safety behaviours among professional and private drivers in Norway and Greece, (2) Examining factors influencing road safety behaviours, focusing especially on national road safety culture, and (3) Examining the influence of road safety behaviours and other factors (e.g., demographic and work-related variables) on accident involvement. The results indicate that aggressive violations are more similar among private and professional drivers within the national samples, than across the national samples, while seat belt use seems to vary according to the professional versus private dimension.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 37th PIN Flash Report “How to improve urban road safety in the EU“, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report analyses the latest data urban road safety across the EU and other countries that form part of the ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, and it conclude with more than twenty main recommendations for action at EU. It is highlighted that the problems can be addressed with the right political leadership, resources and energy. But while the EU, national governments and other actors can help provide the knowledge, finance and guidelines to implement the necessary changes, it will often be up to local authorities to implement them effectively. A comprehensive infographic depicts current urban road safety in Europe, with Pedestrians, Motorcyclists and Cyclists accounting for 70% of all urban road fatalities. 
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “New Directions for Data-Driven Transport Safety”, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report explores how seamless data collection, analysis and sharing can unlock innovations in transport safety. Very often most interventions to improve transport safety are reactions to incidents. However lately, connected vehicles, smartphone apps, ubiquitous sensors, data sharing and machine learning make proactive transport safety interventions possible and prevent crashes before they happen. Drawing on the Safe System approach, this Report examines how transport stakeholders can make better decisions by using more relevant and timely new safety data.
Make Roads Safe Hellas in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Macedonia, the University of the Aegean, the Hellenic Open University and EASST, released a report titled: “International Tourism and Road Safety in Greece, Country Report 2019”. Make Roads Safe Hellas is a Non-Profit Organisation promoting road safety in Greece which hopes to gain momentum from their study and build support for the establishment of a Safe Tourism Network to ensure that road safety for tourists and travellers is given adequate attention, not just in Greece but across the globe. The Report is based on a survey of almost 1,500 international tourists visiting Athens, Chania, and Thessaloniki in 2018, as well on recent accident statistics from ELSTAT.
The European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) has published the “Safe Road Transport Roadmap – Towards Vision Zero: Roads without Victims”, with the active contribution of NTUA. The main objective of this ERTRAC roadmap is to provide a joint stakeholder view on the road safety research needs in Europe. The roadmap is based on the current state of the art and the identified challenges to reach the ambitious goals set for the EU. In this roadmap, ERTRAC proposes a set of eleven high priority road safety research and innovation needs, which should be implemented by providing ample room for citizens and road users themselves to engage.
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) published a Report titled: “Transport in the European Union: Current Trends and Issues“. The Report sets out the key trends and issues for the single European transport area, the development of a safe transport infrastructure network across EU countries, and the external costs of transport, accompanied with the respective country analyses. Special emphasis is given to the consequences of road accidents.
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, thirteen countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely UK, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Malta, Germany, Spain, Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, and France. Greece has been ranked 22nd in 2018 but has demonstrated the highest road fatalities rate reduction (51%) in the last decade, followed by Slovenia (48%), whereas the EU average 10-year reduction is 31%. 
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Road Safety in European Cities – Performance Indicators and Governance Solutions”. This reports benchmarks road safety performance for 72 urban areas, mostly in Europe, and illustrates governance solutions to improve urban road safety with case studies conducted in Lisbon (Portugal) and Riga (Latvia). The report proposes new road safety indicators to assess the level of risk for each mode of transport. It finds that a modal shift away from private motor vehicles could significantly enhance road safety in dense urban areas and deliver public health benefits associated with increased physical activity and improved air quality.
According to the European Commission preliminary statistics, fewer people died on European roads in 2018 but more efforts are needed to make a big leap forward. In 2018, there were around 25.100 fatalities in road accidents in the EU 28. This is a decrease of 21% compared to 2010, and 1% compared to 2017. The EU countries with the best road safety results in 2018 were the United Kingdom (28 deaths/million inhabitants), Denmark (30/million), Ireland (31/million), and Sweden (32/million), whereas the best improvement since 2010 was demonstrated by Greece (-45%) and Lithuania (-43%). With an average of 49 road deaths per one million inhabitants, this confirms that European roads are by far the safest in the world, but it also shows that we are off track to reach our target of halving the number of road deaths by 2020.
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 731 persons were killed in Greece in 2017: 507 drivers, 106 passengers and 118 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 66% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 16% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 59% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (6.4 fatalities per 100 accidents) and young people 15-24 years old (3.7 fatalities per 100 accidents). 
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.
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 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%.
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. 
Since 54 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport. This year the WRS 2018 (data 2011-2016) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. What is highlighted this year is that freight transport is almost evenly split between road and rail in both Europe/ Central Asia region and North America. Passenger transport in these regions is essentially by road with 88% of passengers travelling by roads in Europe/Central Asia and 99% in North America. These statistics allow governments and urban planners to pinpoint where in the transport sector to focus their time and resources to ensure passenger safety and maximum economic benefits.
According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 824 persons were killed in Greece in 2016: 548 drivers, 127 passengers and 149 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 62% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers aged 15-24 years old account for 14% of all male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 58% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7.9 fatalities per 100 accidents) and 0-4 years old children (6.1 fatalities per 100 accidents). 
The World Health Organisation (WHO) published an Interactive Map on Global Road Safety, based on the recently published Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018. This Interactive Map is a highly useful tool allowing to visualize a wealth of information and several road safety parameters per country as well as to highlight the shocking fact that every 23 seconds a road user looses their life.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published the 10 key facts on global road safety as derived from the recent Global health estimates and the Global status report on road safety, published in 2018. The first fact is that “Road traffic injuries are a global public health problem“. To reduce the number of road traffic deaths and injuries, a holistic framework such as the Safe System Approach needs to be adopted to ensure a safe transport system for all road users.
The Global Status Report on Road safety 2018 has been published by World Health Organisation (WHO) with the active contribution of NTUA, in December 2018, highlighting insufficient progress as the number of annual road traffic deaths has reached 1.35 million. Road traffic injuries are now the leading killer of people aged 5-29 years. The report suggests that the price paid for mobility is too high, especially because proven measures exist. These include strategies to address speed and drinking and driving, among other behaviours; safer infrastructure like dedicated lanes for cyclists and motorcyclists; improved vehicle standards such as those that mandate electronic stability control; and enhanced post-crash care. Drastic action is needed to put these measures in place to meet any future global target that might be set and save lives.
A paper titled “Identification of patterns of driver speeding behaviour and safety margins from tangent to curve” authored by Eleonora Papadimitriou, Stergios Mavromatis, Dimosthenis Pavlou and George Yannis is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies. This paper presents a novel definition of drivers’ safety margins reflected in speed profiles on a tangent to curved road design. These safety margins are based on a vehicle dynamics model, which is implemented to assess the speed variation at impending skid conditions from tangent to curve on the basis of several parameters. Data from a driving simulator experiment are used to test the proposed methodology, explore driver’s speed profiles and the parameters affecting drivers’ safety margins. The results suggest that drivers’ safety margins towards the examined curve are considerable, with the majority of the drivers using less than 55% of the available vehicle engine power.
On the occasion of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the European Commission presented the final Road Safety Figures for 2017, which show for the second year in a row a decrease by 2% of road fatalities in the EU compared to the previous year. European Coordinator for Road Safety Matthew Baldwin said: “Whilst European roads are the safest in the world, the downward curve has flattened out in past years. We still have many challenges ahead of us: I especially think of vulnerable road users, who– as the figures show- are making up a larger share of the casualties, especially in urban areas. We need an active, cooperative, holistic approach amongst all stakeholders to implement what we know needs to be done – the Safe System“.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation published a Report titled “Analysis of the state of the art, barriers, needs and opportunities for setting up a Transport Research Cloud”, with the active contribution of NTUA Professor George Yannis. This Report focuses on the requirements for data sharing within the transport research community. In particular, the Report examines the potential of a Transport Research Cloud (TRC) as a subset of the European Union’s European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative. Six domain experts collected data based on their personal experiences, contacts, prior research and a survey sent out to other researchers in the transport domain to enable a preliminary analysis concerning the needs, barriers and potential benefits for the domain should a TRC be realized. Road Safety constitutes a major component of this Transport Research Cloud.
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) published the Final Report of the “Study on powered two-wheeler and bicycle accidents in the EU, SaferWheels”, with the active contribution of NTUA. The SaferWheels study was conducted to investigate accident causation for traffic accidents involving powered two-wheelers and bicycles in the European Union. The objective of the study was to gather PTW and bicycle accident data from in-depth crash investigations, obtain accident causation and medical data for those crashes, and to store the information according to an appropriate and efficient protocol enabling a causation-oriented analysis.
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Safer City Streets: Global Benchmarking for Urban Road Safety”, with the active contribution of NTUA. This document aims to support cities in setting road safety targets and to monitor progress in improving urban road safety. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists account for nearly 80% of urban traffic fatalities. Cities should thus intensify efforts to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. This document presents traffic safety indicators for different road user groups collected in 31 cities worldwide to facilitate the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes. It places a particular attention on measuring the risk of fatality per unit distance traveled.
The Horizons 2020 research project InDev (In-depth Understanding of Accident Causation for Vulnerable Road Users) recently published a handbook with focus on vulnerable road users entitled: How to analyse accident causation? This handbook was developed to help road safety professionals diagnose road safety problems by gaining more insights into the mistakes by road users that lead to collision. It describes various road safety methods that can be applied for studying the safety of vulnerable (and other) road users, including: accident data analysis, conflict and behavioural observations, self-reporting and naturalistic studies and road safety audit and inspection.
The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2018 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.
The Eurostat Regional Yearbook 2018 provides a detailed picture relating to a broad range of statistical topics across the Regions of the EU Member States, as well as the Regions of the EFTA and candidate countries, including the European Regions with the lowest and highest road accident rates. Each chapter presents statistical information in maps, tables, figures and infographics, accompanied by a descriptive analysis highlighting the main findings.
European Commission – DG for Research and Innovation in their Success Stories Web-page recently published the SaferAfrica H2020 project, which has been taken place with the active contribution of NTUA. As a continent, Africa has some of the most lethal roads in the world. A lack of road safety protocols, wanting road conditions and poor post-crash emergency response systems make for alarmingly high fatality rates. To help turn this around, the EU-funded project SaferAfrica is driving policies aimed at improving road safety. “Europe can play an important role by supporting African countries in improving road safety and achieving the Action Plan targets [African Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020],” says project coordinator Luca Persia. “In this view, the project aims at building favourable conditions and opportunities for the effective implementation of road safety actions in African countries by setting up a Dialogue Platform between Africa and Europe.”
In the framework of the European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes (ESRA), NTUA released 3 new infographics, regarding “Drivers’ self-declared behaviour” , “Drivers’ attitudes towards unsafe behaviour” and “Drivers personal and social acceptability” .
ESRA is a joint international initiative of 26 research centers and road safety institutes; the project has surveyed road users in 38 countries on 5 continents. The purpose of this network is to collect comparable data on the opinions, attitudes, and behaviour of road users concerning road safety and mobility, and to provide scientific evidence for policy making at the national and international levels. The Updated Main Report (2017 edition) of ESRA has been published containing the results from the survey in 38 countries, including 13 Latin America countries.
A Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of Drivers’ Preferences Towards New Innovative Vehicle Insurance Schemes” was presented by Emmanouil Konstantinopoulos in July 2018, with the support and data from OSeven Telematics. The objective of this Diploma Thesis is to investigate the most important factors that determine the demand of Greek drivers for vehicle insurance services comprising new innovative insurance schemes of Pay As You Drive and Pay How You Drive (PAYD & PHYD), taking into account critical characteristics of driving behaviour. The analysis demonstrated that the young and the female drivers show higher probability of selecting PAYD/PHYD schemes, while the Freelancers are more reluctant to such schemes. 
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, twelve countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely Sweden, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Spain, Malta, Austria, and Luxembourg. Greece has been ranked 23rd in 2017. Estonia demonstrated the highest road fatalities rate reduction (64%) in the last decade, followed by Lithuania (57%), whereas the EU average 10-year reduction is 38% and for Greece is 51%.
Serious crashes on inter-urban roads may be slashed by a quarter over the next 30-40 years with the introduction of automated vehicles. However, the journey may be far from easy, with a mixed fleet transition and vital need for roads that cars can read, according to recent Report released by EuroRAP. The Report, the third in the “Roads that Cars Can Read” series, examines the relationship between road infrastructure and safety for conventional and increasingly-autonomous vehicles (AVs) and provides a framework for infrastructure safety investment. Other Reports in the series: “Roads that cars can read I: A consultation paper” – 2011 and “Roads that cars can read II: A quality standard for road markings and traffic signs on major rural roads” – 2013.
The Updated Main Report (2017 edition) of the European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes (ESRA) has been published containing the results from the survey in 38 countries, including 13 Latin America countries, with the active contribution of NTUA. The updated version of the ESRA webpage with Deliverables and Publications includes the 2017 Main Report in 3 languages (English, Spanish, French), six Thematic Reports on European drivers attitudes, and the country fact sheets.
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) have published a joint position paper, called ‘Improving infrastructure safety for powered two-wheelers’. Only in 2017 power two-wheelers fatalities (motorcycles and mopeds) counted for 17% of the total road victims, while accounting only for 1,8% of the total traffic flow. Both ERF and FEMA strongly believe that road safety for motorcyclists can be significantly improved by looking at the design of road infrastructure.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 12th edition of PIN Annual Report, with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2018 PIN Conference which took place with great success on 18 June, 2018 in Brussels. 25,250 people lost their lives on the EU roads in 2017, representing a 2% reduction on the 2016 figure. There has been progress since 2010 but time is running out and the 2020 target is now highly unlikely to be met. Strong political will and urgent measures are still needed in all EU Member States to narrow the gap between the desired and the actual EU progress.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 35th PIN Flash Report “An Overview of Road Death Data Collection in the EU“, with the active contribution of NTUA. The goal of this PIN Flash Report is to gather information on road death data collection in different PIN countries and to find out if and how countries cross-check or complement road death data recorded by the police with alternative sources. This Report provides very useful information to exchange good practice on how to improve road death data collection and recording.
Since 53 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport. Over the past years, the WRS have proved to be an invaluable and internationally accepted reference tool for governments, NGOs, investments banks, research institutes and anyone analyzing and reporting trends in key subject areas like traffic volumes and vehicle usage, road expenditure, road safety, energy consumption and emissions. This year, the WRS 2017 (data 2010-2015) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, presented in nine substantive sections, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. 
European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) released a very interesting guide containing good practices for managing work related vehicle risks in the EU, with a specific focus on workplace transport, driving for work and working on or near a road. With this interactive e-guide many good practices are provided as well as an overview of relevant regulations and information in three key aspects of vehicle risks: safe driving for work, workplace transport safety, and working on or near a road.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the full version of the Road Safety Annual Report 2018, which provides a detailed insight of road safety performance for 28 countries. The Annual Report outlines the most recent road safety developments across IRTAD countries and provides comparative data for the main road safety indicators also detailed by road user, age group and type of road. Furthermore, the IRTAD Annual Report contains syntheses of the the road safety strategies and targets in place as well on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour.
A paper titled “How many crashes are caused by driver interaction with passengers? A meta-analysis approach” authored by Athanasios Theofilatos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Eleonora Papadimitriou, and George Yannis is now published in Journal of Safety Research. Conversation and other interactions with passengers while driving induce a level of distraction to the person driving. This paper conducts a qualitative literature review on the effect of passenger interaction on road safety and then extends it by using meta-analysis techniques. The findings of the random-effects meta-analyses that were carried out showed that driver interaction with passengers causes a non-negligible proportion of road crashes, namely 3,5% of crashes regardless of the age of the passengers and 3.8% when child and teen passengers are excluded.
The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) has issued a comprehensive set of statistics on Casualty Road Accidents in Greece for 2016, comprising time-series for the decade 2007-2016. In 2016, 11.318 road accidents with fatalities or serious injuries occurred in Greece, recording a decrease of 1.1% in comparison with 2015 and ending an impressive road fatalities drop during the economic crisis of almost 50%. During the last five years, road fatalities in Greece have decreased by 29% (since 2011), however injury road accidents decreased only by 17%. The rate fatalities per number of vehicles has decreased by 30% since 2011.
