Our latest round-up of road safety news from across Europe – courtesy of TISPOL – includes news of personalised messages for traffic offenders in Belgium.
Announced by the country’s Justice Department last week, offenders will now receive a semi-personalised road safety message along with their fine – related to the offence they have committed.
The messages are aimed at increasing awareness of the ‘most problematic violations’, including speeding, drink driving, mobile phone usage, not wearing seatbelts and failure to use child seats.
The Justice Department said: “Using mobile phones at the wheel multiplies the risk of a collision by four; speed plays a role in 30% of accidents in Belgium; 38% of seriously injured drivers have blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit.
“These are alarming figures that require the offenders to be made more aware of the risks of the most problematic violations.”
Meanwhile in Bulgaria, the Government has created a new model for road safety management – in an effort to drive down casualties.
The country’s road safety agency chief, Malina Krumova, has warned that there are an average of 18 road traffic collisions every day – 10% of which are fatal.
However, figures show there was a 10% reduction in the number of road deaths in 2018.
Malina Kroumova said: “We report a positive trend for both incidents and those killed and injured in road accidents but we have to do more.”
Finally in Italy, a psychologist from the University of Naples is still looking for people to undertake a survey on driverless cars.
Dr Miriam Scala’s research will look to answer the following questions:
- Do people trust driverless cars?
- Do police officers trust driverless cars for police activities?
- Do people trust driverless cars for police enforcement?
Click here to participate in the survey.
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