With the EU enlargement and the challenging aim to halve the number of fatalities in road traffic in EU25, the road safety problems of Eastern and Central European countries have came clearly into light. Having 1.5 times higher mortality rate in road traffic, than former EU 15, the development of road safety in these countries will be crucial to realize the targets defined in White paper for the whole EU. To understand the problems and define appropriate actions in the field of road safety in these countries, one must well understand all the weakness of the present system. CEE and EEC are often seen as a unique monotonous territory with rather same problems in all the fields of life, including road safety. However, already during the screening and negotiation process leading to an accession of 10 new members, four groups of countries become apparent among them: Baltic countries (LT, EST, LV), Mediterranean countries (CY,M), Central European countries (CZ, HU, SK, PL) and Most developed countries (SI). Based on varying political, sociological and historical developments, the countries in these groups have been exhibiting different road accident rates, which have been varying much among different road users. However the differences among accessing countries /AC/ are less complex and deep as these between them and former EU 15 countries. The question has been raised several times, whether these countries should build groups and harmonize their effort towards road safety improvements in their countries. As the successful implementation of particular road safety measures doesn’t depend on recent road safety level or political and administrative background, but rather on quality of measures and its implementation, it seems to be reasonable to cooperate and learn from each other, without forming close and separated groups, which neglect the reality of other countries. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting