7.4.3. Safety of vulnerable road users

Road transport injuries are one of the major contributors to the burden of injury. Each year, 45 000 people are killed on EU roads. Among the different groups participating in road traffic, people without any protection shield, namely pedestrians and two-wheelers are the most vulnerable. In case of a collision with a motorised vehicle they run the highest risk of an injury (Figure 7.20; see also Figure 7.8. Fatalities per road user type

). Approximately 17 300 vulnerable road users (VRUs: pedestrians, cyclists and motor cyclists) were killed in 2004 (Working Group of Governmental Experts on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, 2008). Almost half of fatalities were pedestrians, 37% to motorised road users and 17% to cyclists. Approximately 1.8 million vulnerable road users were injured whereof 1.3 million were bicyclists. Only about 12% of cyclist injuries have been reported by police authorities. Additionally, approximately 1.6 million pedestrians were affected by an injury due to falls in transport areas.

Figure 7.20. Mortality of Vulnerable Road Users by road users, EU25

The data presented is taken from the  report on injuries to eulnerable road users  in the EU which aims at quantifying the problem in order to guide and monitor respective policy actions. Other reports of the same project address initiatives for interventions by the public health sector to prevent accidents among vulnerable road-users (Körmer and Smolka, 2008).

Link to the Project:

http://www.eurosafe.eu.com/csi/eurosafe2006.nsf/wwwVwContent/B63FA7F33AF73562C12572AD00423584?opendocument

Policy recommendations are also provided by Avenso & Beckmann, 2005.

In the field of road safety elaborated systems for the improvement of safety are in place: legislation, enforcement, traffic engineering, educational measures, research. Community networks for the exchange of experiences. Considerable improvements to safety have been achieved in the past and increased efforts for further reduction of transport risks are planned under the leadership of the transport sector at Community and at national level.

Informative sources on safety of vulnerable road users (pedestrians and two-wheelers) are the gateways of the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO) www.erso.eu and of the VOICE – Network (Vulnerable road user organisations in cooperation across Europe) hosted by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) www.etsc.be/voice.php.

Consequently, the public health sector should concentrate its efforts on actions which are complementary and in support of existing policies.