Since last decade the number of people killed in road accidents has halved, as lot of improvement has been made in traffic offence enforcement, driver and passenger protection and the infrastructure. Between 2001 and 2012, more than 240,000 car occupants lost their lives in fatal accidents, said the report of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). In 2001 the total number of victims were 27,700 which by 2012 came down to 12,345. The panel highly appreciated the work done by all the member countries especially Latvia and Spain for showing the biggest reductions in death toll. Antonio Avenoso, executive director of ETSC, said: “While huge progress has been made in cutting the number of people killed, it’s wrong that 12,000 die every year for mostly avoidable reason.”
In the report it is also claimed that if a belt reminder had been fit to all seats in all cars, every year more than 900 precious lives have been saved. Each year, more than 5,600 could be saved by observing zero tolerance on drink-driving and a further 1,300 by cutting the speed limit by 1 km/h. A suggestion has been made of giving a tax incentive on purchase and use of 5-star Euro NCAP vehicles especially equipped with alcohol interlocks, Intelligent Speed Assistance and seatbelt reminders. EU’s target of halving the number of road kills can easily be achieved by 2020 if they make sure of front and rear seatbelt reminders, have better enforcement of speed limits and take appropriate measure to stop habitual drink-drivers to drive the car.
