91997E3517

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3517/97 by Niels Sindal (PSE) to the Commission (12 November 1997)

Subject: Road safety

How many people were killed or injured in road accidents in Denmark in the last year for which statistics are available, and how can these figures be interpreted in relation to the number of fatal accidents per million registered cars (a) in Denmark and (b) in Europe overall?

What is the estimated economic cost of fatal road accidents in Denmark?

What does the Commission suggest can be done to reduce the number of road accident deaths and injuries?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission (18 December 1997)

In 1994 546 people were killed in traffic accidents in Denmark and 9757 were injured. Based on the number killed by million inhabitants over the period 1991-1994, the position of Denmark is better than the European average. Clearly, it is difficult to make precise comparisons between Member States as there are a number of factors, such as the quality of infrastructure, which are not comparable. The figures given above are, however, a clear indication of the relative rate of deaths and injuries and, as national, local and police authorities and safety organisations continually emphasise, there is always room for further improvement.

The Commission has calculated that the direct cost of road accidents (including the cost of police and emergency services, vehicle repairs, and the lost economic output from those killed), is 45 000 MECU per year for the Community as a whole. When divided by the 45 000 fatalities per year this gives us an average of one MECU per death and associated injuries. In Denmark the '1 MECU test' would produce a cost for road deaths of about 550 MECU per year.

The Commission has adopted a communication 'Promoting road safety in the EU - The programme for 1997-2001' ((COM(97) 131 final. )) which sets out in detail the Commission's plans to build on the successes of the first action programme which ran from 1993-1996. The Commission's actions will focus on three fields: information gathering and dissemination in order to identify and to monitor the situation and thereby promote focused improvements; initiating and supporting measures to avoid accidents, with an emphasis on the human factor and its interface with environmental features like road and junction design, traffic signals etc.; initiating and supporting measures to reduce the consequences of accidents when they occur - by means of achieving further improvements in vehicle design and crash resilience, for example. In addition, the Commission actively advocates cost-free changes in behaviour which would save a large number of lives and reduce the seriousness of injuries. If in Denmark, for instance, front and rear seat belt wearing was at the level of the countries in which it is most usual, reliable estimates put the number of lives that would be saved at 76 every year.