Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock this week urged EU governments to increase their efforts

Date: 10/04/1997

to reduce road deaths in the Union, which average about 45,000 every year. Launching a road safety strategy to run to 2001, Kinnock suggested the increased use of safety belts, better protection for pedestrians, improved road construction, and measures to dissuade people from drinking and driving. The European Transport Safety Council's Jeanne Breen welcomed the initiative, but said it was “absurd that it does not fix a target for reducing fatalities”, adding: “There is nothing better than setting a target to establish the necessary political will.”