Road safety education in the spotlight

Road safety education is severely lacking in much of Europe. That is the finding of research by the European Transport Safety Commission (ETSC). According to this new report, there are vast differences in the amount of road safety education given to children across Europe, particularly at secondary school level. The research shows that road safety education is provided to children in primary education all over Europe. However, it is not given to youngsters in secondary education in 20% of the 36 European s
January 25, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Road safety education is severely lacking in much of Europe. That is the finding of research by the European Transport Safety Commission (ETSC). According to this new report, there are vast differences in the amount of road safety education given to children across Europe, particularly at secondary school level.


The research shows that road safety education is provided to children in primary education all over Europe. However, it is not given to youngsters in secondary education in 20% of the 36 European states and regions studied. In addition, the research shows that traffic safety and mobility education is only sparsely addressed in secondary education in most of the states and regions where it is given.

Few states and regions have a legal minimum requirement for the amount of road safety education that should be given at secondary school. And only 50% of states and regions that do offer road safety education set educational goals for what should be taught.

The risk of a road death increases sharply after 13 years of age, as children start to travel independently. For youngsters aged 15-19, road collisions are the main external cause of death. However, it is not known how effective current road safety education practices are at reducing deaths and injuries due to a lack of wide-ranging studies on the issue.

To help tackle this issue, a new event is being run in Madrid providing a focus on traffic education in Europe. This is being coordinated by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV) and Fundación MAPFRE. The report has been written in collaboration with more than 30 road safety education experts from across Europe.

The Leveraging Education to Advance Road safety Now! (LEARN!) project aims to promote traffic safety and mobility education across Europe. It will boost the international community of road safety education experts and establish best practice guidelines for the design, testing, implementation and evaluation of road safety education activities and programmes.

The project has a website (%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external www.trafficsafetyeducation.eu false http://www.trafficsafetyeducation.eu/ false false%>), with resources for road safety education experts and the possibility to sign-up for updates on the latest news, projects, best practice examples and material related to traffic safety and mobility education.

Related Content

  • Better road safety reduces Europe’s casualty figures
    April 1, 2014
    Improving road safety in the EU has resulted in a drop in the fatality rate. Official figures just released show that the number of people killed on Europe's roads fell by 8% in 2013. This follows on from the drop in fatalities of between 2011 and 2012. These provisional figures released by the European Commission provide grounds for optimism and Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) said, “We welcome the reduction in the number of road deaths in Europe last yea
    Read More
  • VIDEO: Kangaroo takes out cyclist down under
    July 25, 2016
    It caught all the cyclists by surprise when a young bounding kangaroo decided to hurl itself at the peloton during a bicycle race in Australia. A fellow racer trailing behind took the video. The targeted cyclist was severely bruised from hitting the deck and he needed stitches. But the marauding kangaroo apparently died from its injuries when it slammed into the bike at a right angle. Cyclists being taken out by kangaroos is more common than most non-Australians would think. Click here to see one cycl
    Read More
  • Slovakian bridge defies high explosives demolition attempt
    November 15, 2012
    An incomplete bridge in Slovakia surprisingly defied an attempt to bring it down with high explosives, officially authorised after the death of four workers in an accident during its construction. The attempt to blast off the part of the under construction D1 highway bridge between the villages of Iliašovce and Kurimany (Prešov region) was made on Tuesday, November 13, 11 days after the tragic incident which also resulted in injuries to a number of other workers.
    Read More
  • Consortia line up for Denmark’s Storstrom Bridge project
    February 12, 2015
    Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, Acciona, Ed Züblin, MT Højgaard and Per Aarsleff are among the bidders to build a bridge connecting the Danish islands of Zealand and Falstser. The Danish Road Directorate expects to choose five pre-qualified consortia for the Storstrom Bridge project in May and the bids for the project are scheduled to be submitted by April 2016. The new bridge, likely to cost around €565 million including the cost of demolishing the old bridge it will replace, is expected to open by 2021, a
    Read More

Highlighted Content