Road lobbies call for project safety audits

Date: 11/02/1999

By Renée Cordes

EUROPE'S main road building organisations are demanding that the EU study the safety implications of new highways before agreeing to help finance road-building schemes.

They also want the European Commission to make safety a priority in its guidelines for the Trans-European Networks (TENs), the EU's priority list of high-speed rail and road links.

The call comes as Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock prepares to unveil his strategy on the issue after the European Parliament decided to double Union funding for road safety to €11 million this year.

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) and 12 other member organisations of the International Road Federation are calling on the Commission to demand road safety audits, much like the environmental assessments which currently have to be drawn up, before funding new projects.

"The Commission has concentrated its efforts on driver behaviour and vehicles, but not on the infrastructure side," said José Papi, head of the ERF's office in Brussels. He added that when it came to evaluating road safety, there was "a lot of talk but little work".

The Commission says it does not have the legal authority to vet every road construction project in the EU, and does not intend to seek it.

However, Kinnock's aides insist that the Union will put more emphasis on road safety in the coming years. In his report, due to be published next month at the earliest, the Commissioner will present specific proposals for action as well as an evaluation of the EU's attempts so far to make roads safer.

"For the first time, we will actually be justifying the actions on cost-benefit grounds, which will have very significant advantages in terms of reducing casualties that far outweigh the costs," said one official.

The new proposals will, for example, be based on estimates - described as 'conservative' - that each life lost in a traffic accident costs €1 million, once lost labour productivity, hospital bills and damage to vehicles are taken into account.

Officials say that, in addition, some of the €380 million designated for the transport sector in the EU's Fifth Framework Research and Development Programme will be used for road safety projects.