EUPAVE releases brochure “Concrete Safety Barriers: a safe and sustainable choice”

30/05/2018

On Friday 2^nd March EUPAVE held in its premises a Workshop on concrete safety barriers. Attended by around 40 participants, the workshop gathered road authorities, contractors, designers and engineers who have an interest in road safety and vehicle restraint systems in particular.

The event also marked the launch of EUPAVE’s updated publication “Concrete Safety Barriers: A Safe and Sustainable Choice”:

“One of the top ten goals set by the White Paper on Transport (2011) is to reduce fatalities in road transport. The increase of the safety of the road infrastructure had been one of the seven main aims of the policy orientations made by the European Commission (EC) regarding to road safety for 2011-2020.

From 2010 to 2016, the number of road fatalities in the EU decreased from 31.500 – the equivalent of a medium town- to 25.500. This represents a 19% reduction over the last six years.

However, despite of the fact that the EU has the safest roads in the world, 70 people are still dying and 370 got serious injuries every day. These figures are insufficient if the EU wants to meet its target of halving road fatalities between 2010 and 2020 (only 40 people by 2020). The European Commission also settled as a long-term goal to move close to zero road fatalities by 2050.

Car occupants account for the largest share of victims (46%). Motorcyclists, who are less protected during a crash, account for 14% of road fatalities. Put together, vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists account for the same proportion and are particularly exposed in urban areas.  One of the ways to achieve this goal, amongst others such as intelligent vehicles and better enforcement, is safer road infrastructure. The use of passive safety systems and, more specifically, road restraint systems undoubtedly contributes to higher safety. There will also be more focus on vulnerable road users, motorcyclists in particular.”

FULL PUBLICATION HERE