Every year more than 40.000 people die and more than one million are injured in road crashes in the Member States of the European Union. As well as the human tragedy of so many deaths and injuries, road crashes have a substantial economic cost, in the order of 160 billion euros annually. It is the objective of the European Commission to reduce this toll by 50% by 2010. To this end, the Commission intends to submit to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers a package of two proposals for directives, one dealing with the enforcement of laws relating to speeding, drunk driving and non-use of seat belts with respect to all road users, and the other consisting of a 'refonte' of existing EU legal instruments dealing with enforcement of EU safety rules for commercial road transport. Before moving ahead with these initiatives, however, the European Commission wishes to analyse and document the benefits and costs of implementing the proposed directives. The analyses presented in this report provide an estimate of the costs and benefits for each of the two proposed initiatives. The results from a parallel effort by the legal firm, Clifford Chance, to document road safety laws and enforcement practices in the member states, has been incorporated into this analysis. (Author/publisher)
Abstract