A Diploma Thesis titled “Analysis of the effect of economic recession on road safety in Greece” was presented by Christos Batsos in September 2017. The objective of this Diploma Thesis is to investigate the effect of the economic recession on road fatalities and severe injuries in Greece. For this analysis, suitably processed road accident data during the period 2003-2014 have been exploited. It appears that the economic recession has led to a significant reduction in fatalities and serious injuries. The principal mechanisms bringing this decline about are the reduction of accidents with involvement of passenger cars, of young drivers and outside traffic junctions. These results indicate that apart from the decline of vehicle kilometers of travel, the change in road user behavior might have contributed to the total improvement of road safety during the economic crisis.  

A Diploma Thesis titled “Modelling mobile phone use impact on driver behaviour through the exploitation of data from smartphone sensors” was presented by Anastasia Argyropoulou in July 2017. The aim of this Diploma Thesis was to examine and model the impact of mobile phone use on driver behaviour through the exploitation of data from smartphone sensors. To achieve this objective, data collected from 100 drivers who participated at a naturalistic driving experiment for four months were analysed through statistical modelling. The application of the models revealed that the factors affecting the harsh events are five, with the average driving speed being the main one, while the factors affecting the possibility of using the mobile phone while driving are six, with the average angular speed being the main one.  

A paper titled “Meta-analysis of the effect of road work zones on crash occurrence” authored by Athanasios Theofilatos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Eleonora Papadimitriou, George Yannis, and  Konstandinos Diamandouros is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. This paper presents formal meta-analyses of studies that have estimated the relationship between the number of crashes and work zone duration and length, in order to provide overall estimates of those effects on crash frequencies. All studies presented in this paper are crash prediction models with similar specifications. Meta-regression findings indicate that the main factors influencing the overall estimates of the beta coefficients are study year and region for work zone duration and study year and model specification for work zone length. 

According to the latest ELSTAT data for 2015, 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 7 times more at night with no street lighting or no street lighting, but also at night accidents outside built-up areas. 

The Road Safety Unit of DG Move of the European Commission published recently the 2016 Edition of the EU Annual Road Accidents Report  and the respective Infographics  with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. The EU Annual Road Accidents Report is based on most recent disaggregate data for all EU countries from the CARE Database of the European Commission and consist of summary and cross-country comparative tables, figures and maps on key road safety topics for which data comparable across the EU counties are available.

Ten countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely Sweden, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Austria, and Slovakia. Greece is ranked 24th in 2016. Lithuania reached 72% reduction in the last decade. 

The World Road Association-PIARC recently published a report entitled: “Advanced technology for data collection and information to users and operator”. The report provides brief summaries of projects from around the world, presented in the form of use cases that are representative of innovative ways of collecting, distributing, and making use of mobile data to assist transportation officials in their winter maintenance operations and to provide information to the travelling public. The use cases or case studies were selected because it is the belief of the authors that, when deployed, any of the technologies described will have a positive impact on transportation safety, mobility, the environment, and/or more efficient use of human and material resources needed to carry out their winter maintenance duties. 

The Australia and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI), led by the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB), released the Preliminary findings from the first Australian National Survey of Public Opinion about Automated and Driverless Vehicles. In late 2016, a sub-set of members of ADVI’s Scientific Research Group designed and conducted a public opinion survey to gauge Australian public awareness, understanding and likely acceptance of automated vehicles, with the primary focus on cars. Responses from 5263 participants were collected and analysed in relation to their level of awareness of automated vehicles generally, and their opinions specifically about partly- and fully-automated cars: perceived risks associated with them, their willingness to pay for them, perceived potential benefits, trust in them, perceived concerns and likely acceptance. 

SafeFITS, the Global Road Safety Model developed by NTUA for the United Nations – Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) with the support of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) has been presented and discussed at the respective RoundTable in Geneva, on June 30th, 2017. SafeFITS Model is a global macroscopic road safety decision making tool aiming to assist governments and decision makers, both in developed and developing countries, to explore and choose the most appropriate road safety policies and measures in order to achieve tangible results. The SafeFITS Model is based on the related scientific knowledge available worldwide, with emphasis on recent academic research and project results. 

NTUA Professor George Yannis presentation concerned:

SafeFITS – A Global Road Safety Model For Future Inland Transport Systems

WHO Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Collaborating Centre in India, namely the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) released two reports on road safety:

1. “Advancing Road Safety in India: Implementation is the key”, which is a report providing a comprehensive review of road safety scenario in India from a public health perspective 

2. “Advancing Road Safety in India: Facts and Figures”, which is a report based on available information from different sources in India provides facts and figures aimed at equipping diverse stakeholders in taking appropriate actions 

According to ELSTAT final road accidents data for 2015, come off the road and at angle collisions are the two most common accident types outside built-up areas. Pedestrian accidents, at angle collisions, come off the road and collisions with stopped vehicle are the most common accident types inside built-up areas. Accident severity is more than 5 times higher outside built-up areas at pedestrian accidents. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has just published the 33th PIN Flash Report “Tapping the potential for reducing work-related road deaths and injuries“, with the active contribution of NTUA. Over 25,600 lives were lost on the road in the European Union in 2016, of those a large proportion were victims of work-related road (WRR) collisions. Even though the exact number is unknown, it is likely that up to 40% of all road deaths are work-related. It includes three parts: Part I: Work-related road safety (WRRS) data collection and reporting, Part II: The national legal framework for work-related road safety, and Part III: Public authority leadership in managing work-related road risks.

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the PIN Annual Report at the eleventh edition of PIN Annual Conference on 20 June 2017, in Brussels. Since 2014, progress has virtually ground to a halt. 2016 was the third consecutive poor year for road safety: 25,670 people lost their lives on EU roads compared to 26,200 the previous year – a 2% decrease. But this followed a 1% increase in 2015 and stagnation in 2014. Out of the 32 countries monitored by the PIN Programme, 15 countries registered a drop in the number of road deaths last year. NTUA contributed actively to this ETSC PIN Annual Report.

According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT data, among the 793 persons killed in Greece in 2015: 405 were outside built-up areas and 388 were inside built-up areas. 57% 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 almost 5 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 

The Private Sector Global Coalition Together for Safer Roads (TSR) composed by 16 leading global companies has organised on June 19th, 2017, in Atlanta, USA a Round Table Discussion on New Trends and Opportunities in Road Safety. This Round Table Discussion demonstrated the high potential of technology and new trends for safety improvement as well as the role of the Member Companies to promote and exploit this potential. NTUA Professor George Yannis presentation concerned:

Exploiting Data for Road Safety Decision Making

The Council of the European Union set a new target of halving the number of serious injuries on roads in the EU by 2030 from the 2020 baseline, using a recently agreed common definition. Of particular concern is the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed or seriously injured each year. Council conclusions on road safety endorse the Valletta declaration on improving road safety adopted at an informal ministerial meeting organised by the presidency on 29 March 2017. They will feed into the next EU strategy on road safety, which is expected to be developed for the decade 2020-2030.  

World Health Organisation (WHO) released a a road safety technical package entitled: Save LIVES, which is an evidence-based inventory of priority interventions with a focus on Speed management, Leadership, Infrastructure design and improvement, Vehicle safety standards, Enforcement of traffic laws and post-crash Survival. The 6 strategies and 22 interventions recommended in the package are interrelated and should be implemented in an integrated manner to effectively address road traffic deaths and injuries. 

The World Road Association (PIARC) has recently published a report entitled: “Experience with Significant Incidents in Road Tunnels”. Approximately ten to fifteen years ago many countries introduced tunnel safety management systems and started paying attention to tunnel safety in a more structured way. Experience with tunnel incidents and methods for incident evaluation and risk analysis have led to developments in organisation and management and to improvements in the systems in use. In this report several contributing countries share information on lessons learned from incidents and developments in safety management and risk analysis and conclusions are drawn on topics of general interest. 

DEKRA has updated its online tool to track the status of “Vision Zero”, a multinational road traffic safety project demonstrating that hundreds of towns and cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants achieved the target of zero deaths caused by road accidents in at least a single year. 16 of these towns and cities did not see a single death caused by road accidents in the entire period. Overall, the figures show that, far from being an illusion, “vision zero” is attainable in urban habitats and already a reality in many towns and cities. This highlights the need to step up efforts to learn from successful towns and cities, to further improve road safety and get ever closer to achieving the vision – including with regard to serious injuries.   

The International Road Federation (IRF Geneva) supporting global action aiming at halving the number of road death and injuries from road crashes by 2020 released a new knowledge repository on road safety. The Global Transport Knowledge Practice (gTKP) hosts work produced by Project Group 1 and Project Group 2 of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration Group (UNRSC). The release is being made possible by work of many of the members of the UNRSC and support from the World Bank hosted Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) and from RoadSafe UK. 

Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) has published its fourth biennial report in 2016 on the performance of the TEN-T (Roads) network within CEDR member countries. CEDR’s intention in collecting and publishing this information is to establish a stable set of data with which to monitor trends and identify changes in the performance of the TEN-T (Roads) network. As such, the report is a useful source of information for individual National Road Administrations (NRAs), regulatory bodies, and others for benchmarking purposes and for setting national performance targets.

With 3500 people killed every day in traffic crashes the Manifesto #4RoadSafety issued by the Global Network for Road Safety Legislators highlights the measures that can help prevent this tragic waste of human life on the world’s roads. The Manifesto #4RoadSafety includes ten key recommendations to encourage parliamentarians to support the current United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020), with focus on speed management, the safe system approach, occupational road safety, good governance and funding for road injury prevention, the role of the multilateral development banks and proposes a new UN target for road safety in 2030.  

Download the Manifesto #4RoadSafety  and the Recommendations:

The World Health Organization has released a Road Safety Manual for decision-makers and practitioners concerning Powered Two- and Three-Wheeler (PTW) Safety. This Manual describes the magnitude of PTW death and injury; key risk factors; ways of assessing the PTW safety situation in a given setting and preparing an action plan; and how to select, design, implement and evaluate effective interventions. The Manual also stresses the importance of a comprehensive, holistic approach that includes engineering, legislation and enforcement measures, as well as behavioural changes.  

In conjunction with World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28, Together for Safer Roads (TSR) released the “Guidelines for Using Technology to Address Road Safety Challenges” Report. This Report is the second in its Advancing Road Safety Best Practices for Companies and Their Fleets series, outlines how to effectively apply safety technologies, like connected vehicles and infrastructure, autonomous vehicles and features, sensors and telematics, and consumer electronics, to fleet operations in order to pave the way to a golden era of road safety.  

According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, 793 persons were killed in Greece in 2015: 545 drivers, 120 passengers and 128 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 65% 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 63% of all pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7.6 fatalities per 100 accidents) and younger persons (4.4 fatalities per 100 accidents). 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published the PIN Flash Report 32 ‘Reducing deaths in Single Vehicle Collisions‘, with the contribution of NTUA. A third of road deaths in the EU are caused by collisions that involve a single motorised vehicle where the driver, rider and/or passengers are killed but no other road users are involved. Several significant key recommendations to Member States and key recommendations to EU Institutions are included in this PIN Flash Report.  

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) released some very interesting infographics including the latest data on road deaths across the European Union and other countries covered by ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme. Full analysis and background data tables can be found in the latest annual edition of the ETSC PIN report. 

The International Transport Forum (ITF) launched recently a new visualisation tool for transport indicators, including road fatalities data. The tool makes it possible to compare trends across countries, create rankings or show data on a map.

19 indicators for more than 50 countries cover topics including CO2 emissions, road safety, infrastructure investment, modal shares and the transport network. 

The European Commission has published the most recent road safety statistics, based on provisional data for 2016 road deaths in Europe indicating a drop of 2% in the number of fatalities recorded across the EU last year. 25,500 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2016, 600 fewer than in 2015 and 6,000 fewer than in 2010. A further 135,000 people were seriously injured on the road according to Commission’s estimates. Following two years of stagnation, 2016 marks the return of a positive downwards trend and over the last six years, road fatalities have been cut by 19%. While this pace is encouraging, it may nevertheless be insufficient if the EU is to meet its target of halving road fatalities between 2010 and 2020, as said by Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc. 

In the context of the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week, WHO has released a new Report on Managing Speed, which highlights that excessive and inappropriate speed is among the key risks for road traffic deaths and injuries, contributing to around one third of road traffic fatalities in high-income countries and up to one half in low- and middle-income countries. Safe speeds are among the four main elements of the “safe systems approach” to road safety, along with safe roads and roadsides, safe vehicles and safe road users.