eSafety Initiative

Safer Roads for European Citizens

In the past few years, road safety has gradually increased in the EU-15 Member States, with this trend likely to continue in the future. The reduction in the number of fatalities was 3% in 2001-2002 and 7% in 2002-2003. However, the enlarged EU tells a different story. In eight of the ten new Member States, road fatality and accident figures are still rising due to inadequate road networks, lack of enforcement and poorly maintained vehicle fleets. At the same time, the cost of injuries and material damage caused by road accidents remains extremely high, a total of 50 billion euro for accidents with fatalities per year and 40.5 billion for accidents with severe injuries per year. These issues, when compounded, call for drastic road safety measures.

The 2001 White Paper "European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide" sets out the ambitious target of halving the number of road fatalities by 2010. This requires a rapid increase in the efforts of all safety stakeholders. To support these actions, the European Commission officially launched the eSafety initiative in April 2002.

eSafety brings together the European Commission, industry, public authorities and other stakeholders to accelarate the development, deployment and use of eSafety systems - Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems - that use information and communication technologies in intelligent solutions, in order to increase road safety and reduce the number of accidents on Europe's roads.

Key eSafety Stakeholders

• European Commission
• Member States
• Road and safety authorities
• Automotive industry
• Telecommunications industry
• Service providers
• User organisations
• Insurance industry
• Technology providers
• Research organisations
• Road operators

eSafety Compendium

	Document
eSafety Compendium - Addendum I (December 2006)	.pdf (9577 KB)
eSafety Compendium (May 2006)	.pdf (4819 KB)