Devised as Project EDWARD by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), the initiative is meant to draw attention to the average of 70 deaths occurring every day on European roads.

Project EDWARD has the support of European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, the European Commission, the European Transport Safety Council and traffic police forces from across TISPOL’s 30 member countries.

UK support for Project EDWARD comes in the form of a donation from the GEM Motoring Assist Road Safety Charity. The initiative also has the support of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), Road Safety GB, Road Safety Scotland, Road Safety Wales, the Automobile Association and many public and private organisations.

TISPOL is urging national governments to ensure road casualty reduction is a priority.

President chief superintendent, Aidan Reid, commented: “There have been some excellent reductions in road deaths and serious injuries earlier in this decade, but they have stalled in the past couple of years. It is therefore vital that we re-focus our attention on the efforts needed to get back on course in order to have a chance of achieving the European 2020 targets.

“We believe strongly in the value of setting targets, and we believe that the strong leadership from governments can make a massive difference in reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads.”