Held today (9th May), the conference – the sixth of its kind – was held in Athens by the European Commission and the Greek EU Presidency.

Vice-president Siim Kallas, commissioner for transport, said: ‘The EU has an outstanding road safety record in global comparison. But as long as there are fatal accidents on our roads, we cannot afford to be complacent. In 2013 still some 26 000 people died on our roads – a humbling challenge. During the last couple of years we have focused a lot on the role of road users. This year, it is time to look at the roads and the infrastructure. There is great potential in making EU roads both safer and smarter.’

The European Commission said that safety efforts for European infrastructure have so far focused primarily on the motorways. That work has paid off. Today, only 7% of all road fatalities in the EU occur on motorways, in spite of the large traffic volumes and high speeds.

However, the European Road Safety Day looked at how to spread the benefits of the safer motorways also to the inter-urban road network where most fatal accidents occur today. The conference also looked at what can be done to roll out more of the intelligent transport systems with great road safety potential, such as real-time warnings about dangerous road conditions and eCall.

The European Commission added that a key part of making EU motorways safer has been the adoption of certain basic safety principles for the management of roads on the trans-European road transport network: safety inspections, mapping of the most dangerous road stretches and safety impact assessments before the building of new roads. It added: ‘If a crash cannot be avoided, at least the road environment should be designed to minimise the damage.’