Speeding as a traffic violation is responsible for many accidents and for many fatalities and injuries all over the world. In Greece speeding was and still is a common traffic violation that causes many deaths and serious injuries to car passengers and pedestrians both in urban and in rural areas. The Greek Government prepared 2 years ago and launched a new Road Safety Plan, setting the priority areas and the policies / measures necessary to be followed or taken. The Plan also set specific goals and specific measurable objectives. Two of them were the improvement of Traffic Police enforcement and the training of Traffic Police Staff. The available figures expressed in terms of accident and casualty data as well as in terms of quantity of enforcement reveal that most of the goals set are being achieved. Improvement of enforcement in terms of quality was also found to be a decisive factor in this. The differences from the past refer to the strict control of vehicle speed using modern radar equipment, continuous presence of Police at heavy traffic locations, rationalization of speed limits, reduction of speed limits at urban areas, alcohol controls especially during night and more patrolling on the highways. The training of Traffic Police Staff was performed using Academics and other experts in different areas as trainers. For 2001, reductions in fatal accidents of 8% and in heavy injuries of 23% were achieved, showing that there is still a margin for further improvement. For the covering abstract see ITRD E123193.
Abstract