Poland developing road safety strategy

The authorities in Poland are working on a road safety strategy intended to tackle the country’s high level of fatalities and injuries from traffic crashes. Improvements in safety levels are being seen with a decline in the fatality rate and in 2012, 3,600 people were killed representing a drop of 22.3% from the previous year. The first quarter of 2013 saw an 18.1% drop in road crashes, a 25.4% fall in fatalities and an 18.4% reduction in injuries compared with statistics available for the same period in 20
May 22, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The authorities in Poland are working on a road safety strategy intended to tackle the country’s high level of fatalities and injuries from traffic crashes. Improvements in safety levels are being seen with a decline in the fatality rate and in 2012, 3,600 people were killed representing a drop of 22.3% from the previous year. The first quarter of 2013 saw an 18.1% drop in road crashes, a 25.4% fall in fatalities and an 18.4% reduction in injuries compared with statistics available for the same period in 2012. The data shows that there was also a 22.3% drop in the numbers of incidents involving pedestrians, a 13.5% fall in the numbers of pedestrian fatalities and a 24.5% reduction in the numbers of pedestrians injured. This overall improvement has been achieved through tougher enforcement of existing laws by the police, as well as the involvement of traffic police in education and preventative measures. However, more work needs to be done and the police are targeting drink driving in particular as this has been identified as a major problem for Poland and a key focus for future safety strategy. During 2013’s May weekend alone, Polish police arrested 4,550 drivers for being at the wheel while under the influence of alcohol.

Related Content

  • Portugal's road safety initiative
    February 14, 2012
    The Portuguese experience with road safety has proved that planning, development, introduction, and hard work do pay off in the end. Paulo Marques Augusto, president of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR), explained that in the last 10 years a decrease of over 50% has been achieved in the number of fatalities on the road network despite a continuing growth in traffic demand (there are five million vehicles in Portugal), and a similar reduction in travel time on most of the connections between Lisbon a
    Read More
  • Road death reduction in Australia and overall safety gain
    January 21, 2015
    Australia’s road safety improved in 2014, with a reduction in road-related fatalities. Official data from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics shows that the number of people died on roads in Australia stood at 1,153 people, a drop from the previous year’s figure. This is the lowest annual death toll on Australia’s roads for 69 years, which is of note given the massive rise in vehicle numbers during that time. Vehicle safety has certainly played a role with massively improved p
    Read More
  • Japan’s safer roads see casualties fall
    January 10, 2018
    Japan has seen its road safety levels improve significantly in 2017, compared with the previous year. Data compiled by Japan’s National Police Agency shows that there were 3,694 traffic fatalities in the country in 2017, a drop of 210 from the previous year. There were 1,171 pedestrian fatalities, a drop of 1% from the previous year. Meanwhile vehicle occupants accounted for 1,106 deaths and 436 cyclists were killed in crashes. According to the authorities, tougher enforcement of road traffic rules played
    Read More
  • Algeria’s improving road safety
    August 22, 2018
    Algeria is seeing a major improvement in road safety due to a combination of better driver education and tougher enforcement actions. Official figures show a 59% drop in road crashes in the last three years. In the period from 1st January to 17th August 2014 there were 24,388 recorded road crashes compared with 20,631 for the same period in 2015, 14,452 in 2016, 10,505 in 2017 and 6,928 in 2018. During the first seven months of 2018 there were 5,076 road crashes in Algeria, which resulted in 1,512
    Read More

Highlighted Content