Tackling Challenges with Even More Focus
Editorial European Road Safety Report 2016
Welcome to
www.dekra-roadsafety.com
DEKRA's new road safety portal. Our organization has been campaigning for road safety for over 90 years with regular vehicle inspections, the work of our accident analysts and researchers, our crash tests, public campaigns and our involvement in national and international committees.
Another major element of our road safety work is the European Road Safety Report, which DEKRA has published in print form, in several languages, every year since 2008. We have launched our new portal to coincide with the release of the DEKRA Road Safety Report 2016, which focuses on passenger transportation.
The portal contains information about the many important topics surrounding road safety. With image and video material as well as interactive graphics, it also offers supplementary content to the printed report.
The most recent accident figures released by the European Commission are alarming. In 2015, for the first time in 14 years, more people died on the roads in EU member states than the previous year. All the more reason to urgently call upon all stakeholders to make every effort to reverse this trend and mirror the successes of previous years.
This applies especially to the potential offered by vehicle technology and infrastructure. People must represent a particularly important starting point for all road safety work. Through their own behavior, they can make a significant contribution to road safety.
While a whole range of measures – including electronic assistance systems in particular – have made our roads safer over the past few years, the positive potential of these measures is partly undone by increasing distractions on the road. Drivers, and pedestrians, become distracted from what is happening on the road because they are using a smartphone, for example. The dangers of this cannot be underestimated.
We believe that work aimed at improving road safety over the next few years must focus in particular on road user distraction. Education is a top priority here.
One thing is clear: DEKRA's work on road safety will not slow down. The company will continue to pursue the objective written into its articles of association by its founder in 1925 in the long term. The new road safety portal is another component of this work.