Mr Kostas Hatzidakis, the Greek Minister of Transport and Communication, was the keynote speaker at an international road safety symposium, ‘Making Roads Safe...Towards Zero Fatalities on the Road’ held in the Great Arsenal, Chania, Crete, on 29 October. Describing road safety as “at the top of our priorities” Minister Hatzidakis acknowledged that despite “consistent improvement” Greece’s road safety performance is “still a fair way behind compared to other European countries. Our aim is to get as near as possible to the European target which is a 50% fall in deaths from road accidents in 2010 as compared with 2000. In 2000 we had 2103 deaths and the number should be down to 1051 in 2010. In 2007 we were at 1440 deaths. We are trying to get as near as possible to the common European target”, Mr Hatzidakis confirmed.
The Minister described the actions taken by the Greek government to implement the current strategic plan for road safety (2006-2010). Last year the National Parliament adopted a new Highway Code with heavy fines for safety related violations. The Government was also upgrading the driver training and licensing system, improving road safety education, strengthening its inspection of vehicles, and encouraging stronger police enforcement on the road network combined with intensified road safety awareness campaigns in the media. The Minister also highlighted the safety benefits of the country’s current €18.5 billion investment in improved infrastructure in which safer design of the new roads is expected to reduce road crashes by one fifth. Finally Mr Hatzidakis stressed the need for national coordination of their road safety effort and welcomed the recent formation of an Inter-Ministerial Committee on road safety that will bring together all the responsible Ministers.
Also speaking at the Chania Symposium, Lieutenant General Gregorious Anagnostou of the Greek Police representing the Ministry of the Interior warned that young people are especially at risk from road crashes and urged that the creation of a “culture of road safety that respects the protection of human life”. He confirmed the Greek Police’s support for the implementation of the Strategic Plan and for stronger enforcement action in support of the new Highway Code. The Prefect of Chania, Grigoris Archontakis, welcomed participants to the city and to Crete and described the efforts the Prefecture was making to contribute to road safety on the island. From a road user’s perspective Vassilis Despotopoulos, President of the Greek Automobile Club, (ELPA) highlighted the importance of improved driver education and training, safer roads and the need to reinforce the effort to achieve the European Union target to reduce deaths by 50% by 2010. The urgent need for global action to avoid the death toll of more than 3,000 lives per day was stressed by Max Mosley, the President of the FIA, who compared the relative neglect of road safety with worldwide reaction to terrorist attacks such as 9/11 in New York. A moving presentation was also made by Mrs Danelli Mylona, of the Panos Mylonas Road Safety Institute. Her son Panos Mylonas was killed in 2004 aged 22 on the road between Corinth and Patras where he was attending University. Established in his memory the Institute is supporting a wide range of road safety advocacy and action programmes.
A major feature of the Chania Symposium was the OECD/International Transport Forum report ‘Towards Zero - Achieving Ambitious Road Safety Targets’ and the main recommendations of this important study was presented by Stephen Perkins, Head of the OECD/ITF Joint Research Centre. Isabelle Kardacz, Head of Road Safety at the European Commission also participated giving a summary of the EU policies and action to achieve the 2010 target. The Symposium examined road safety in Crete in a series of presentations coordinated by Professor Kostas Zopounidis of the Technical University of Crete and EuroRAP gave a preliminary report on their road safety assessment of the island’s main national road. To mark the Symposium a bicycle rally thorough Chania in support of the Make Roads Safe campaign was organized by Special Olympics Hellas. Greece will host the world wide Special Olympics in 2011 and the President of the games, Joanna Despotopolou, together with other VIPs, started the race in the old Venetian harbor which ended at the Chania Prefecture.
Coinciding with the Chania Symposium were the annual meetings of the International and European Road Assessment Programmes (iRAP & EuroRAP) which were held in Chania Cultural Centre from 27-31 October bringing together the world’s leading practitioners in road infrastructure safety rating and assessment. For the duration of the Conference a public road safety exhibition was held in the Great Arsenal featuring the Make Roads Safe, Think Before You Drive and Choose ESC campaigns. The Symposium was sponsored by the FIA Foundation, in association with the Greek Automobile Association (ELPA) and the Chania Prefecture, and was organized by Anna Voulgaridou.
Click here to view the presentations from the event >
Click here to download the programme (.doc / 880kb) >