Safer roads

Prevention is ultimately better than cure. Romania can improve road safety by following this saying. Even though more and more vehicles run on the roads every year, injuries are largely foreseeable and preventable. Despite the fact that the main means of transport for Romanians is the car (chosen by almost ¾ of users), the quality of roads ranks among the lowest in the European Union .

In terms of infrastructure, the Romanian national road network has more than 15 000 km of national roads, roughly 34 700 km of county roads and about 30 000 km of local roads. Moreover, the number of cars is forecast to grow in the coming years, which may result in increased fatality rates unless effective preventive actions are taken.

Romania seeks to reduce the number of road accidents and injuries by producing a General Action Plan for Road Safety. The Ministry of European Funds in Romania required JASPERS assistance to:

• Support the competent authorities to review the current state of play and all the relevant initiatives in the field of traffic safety. The assessment reviewed Romanian legislation and its institutional framework in the field of road safety, comparing them with European regulations and best practice. That helped identify gaps and measures to harmonise them. Finally, we checked the road safety audit procedures applied in road infractructure projects.                                                                                                                        
• Support the preparation of a general action plan to improve traffic safety conditions and, consequently, reduce the number of accidents and fatal injuries.The proposed plan prioritises a list of actions, sets specific activities, estimates budgets and identifies potential financing sources.

The actions cover five areas:

1. Road conditions. The physical condition of roads is key to prevent road accidents. For instance, one action could be to tackle blackspots and redesign inadequate roads.

2. Legislation. Road rules are crucial to develop a general action plan for road safety. This includes improving traffic rules, developing legislation on road safety and transposing the EU road safety directive. 

3. Data collection. Data collection is the foundation of accident recording. Accidents should be registered by GPS coordinates. This type of coordinates gives insights about the kind of user involved, the means of transport and the most common places where accidents take place. 

4. Education of key actors. We are all key actors since road safety concerns all sides of society, all of us drive a car or traverse pedestrian crossings by foot or bike. Public campaigns or road safety teaching in schools could raise public awareness in general, more specifically:

• drivers should keep their cars, motorbikes or trucks in good shape,
• driving teachers should follow firm criteria when issuing driving licences,
• road inspectors need to be able to identify problems during inspections and react in cases of non-compliance,
• hospital workers should be better prepared in the event of an accident,
• politicians should recognise the importance of road safety and commit themselves to taking action.

5. Economic aspects. Concerning funding and resources, representatives allocate a budget for the Inter-ministerial Council for Road Safety in Romania (CISR). Budgets coming from the ministries and funding at local level will implement the strategy and action plans.

At the same time, JASPERS created a special working group in which all stakeholders share their ideas and discuss proposals.

The results of JASPERS’s gap assessment and the proposed actions are now incorporated into the National Road Safety Strategy for 2016–2020 and its Implementation Action Plan. Both of these were approved by a Romanian Governmental Decision.

Road safety considerations, particularly the road conditions dimension, are also deeply embedded into the definition and preparation of new projects to be supported by EU funding.