The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) welcomed the proposal for a Directive which aims to 'facilitate cross-border enforcement in the field of road safety' published on the 19th of March 2008. The Council also welcomed the European Parliament’s overwhelming support to the proposed Directive with the adoption of their Report in the Plenary on the 17th of December 2008. The Directive applies to non commercial traffic and should complement the EU’s existing legislation on enforcement of Social Rules covering the professional transport sector Regulation 2006/561. The Directive should cover the main offences causing death and serious injury in the EU: speeding, drink/drug driving, non use of seat belts and mobile phone use. It should follow through a watertight enforcement procedure including an offence notification step. This new instrument should fill an important gap in the enforcement chain thus enabling the information exchange needed to follow through police’s and enforcement authority efforts to achieve full compliance with the traffic law and improve road safety. Moreover, ETSC supports the incorporation of best enforcement practices into the legislative proposal. This would significantly strengthen the proposal and lead to a more substantial contribution to reducing the 35,000 annual deaths on Europe’s roads. (Author/publisher)
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