Europe unites against road crashes

On World Health Day 30 cities and regions from across Europe signed the European Road Safety Charter in the City Hall of London. The ceremony was hosted by Jenny Jones, vice-mayor of London in the presence of the European Commission and Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP.

The signatories pledged to contribute to reaching the European target of halving the number of road accident victims by 2010.

As city networks dealing with urban transport issues, ACCESS-EUROCITIES and POLIS are naturally concerned about the number of accidents and injuries occurring on Europe’s roads. Although the number of road deaths has almost halved in the last 30 years, 40.000 fatalities and 1.7m casualties still appear in the official statistics for the 15 EU Member States every year.

As co-ordinators of the SAFE (Safety Actions for Europe) Campaign, ACCESS-EUROCITIES and POLIS were among the first stakeholders to sign the European Road Safety Charter on 6 April in Dublin in the presence of the European Ministers of Transport.

The SAFE Campaign supports the EC’s Road Safety Action Programme through the implementation of local initiatives in towns, cities and regions. Each signing authority also committed to a number of individual actions that will become part of its local road safety policy.

The cities and regions that signed the Charter included: Aberdeen, Barcelona, Birmingham, Brno, Brussels Region, Cologne, Genoa, Ghent, Gothenburg, Greater London Authority, Hampshire, Helsinki, Karlstad, Krakow, Lancashire, Leeds, Lille, London Borough of Bromley, London Borough of Camden, London Borough of Ealing, London Borough of Merton, Lyon, Manchester, Prague, Riga, Thessaloniki, Vienna, Walloon Region, West Sussex County Council.

For more information about the SAFE Campaign and ACCESS-EUROCITIES visit www.access-eurocities.org or contact Héliéna Brégand, communications officer, +32 2 5520883, h.bregand@eurocities.be.