Efforts for Road Safety Must Be Further Intensified

For the first time in 14 years, road fatalities in the EU have increased in 2015 compared to the year before. Clemens Klinke, Member of the Board of DEKRA SE and responsible for the automotive business unit, comments:

“For a long time, the number of people killed on the EU’s roads has been declining more or less steadily. However, the positive dynamic has lost momentum in the past years. Given the strategic goal of the European Union to halve the number of road fatalities by 2020 compared to 2010, today’s statistics are alarming news. It is all the more vital that everybody concerned act against this development with all means, in order to get back on a positive track.

In spite of all the potential in vehicle technology or infrastructure: The human factor has to be an important leverage in the work for road safety. People and their behavior can make a significant contribution to safety on our roads.

While many measures have made driving safer in the past years, in particular electronic driver assistance systems, this positive potential has been partially counteracted by increasing distraction in traffic. Drivers as well as pedestrians divert their attention from traffic, for example because they use their smartphones. Dangers arising from this should by no means be underestimated.

Work for road safety, from our point of view, needs to address the issue of distraction with great determination. Making people aware of the risks should take first priority here.

DEKRA had been devoting attention to the issue of traffic safety, particularly in its annual Road Safety Report publication. The high significance of distraction is also underscored in the 2016 DEKRA Road Safety Report that we will present on April 12 in Berlin.”