The International Road Transport Union has welcomed the positive road safety developments communicated by the International Transport Forum and has confirmed that road safety will remain a top priority for the commercial road transport industry.
Following the publication of the latest road safety figures, which indicate a decrease of nearly 10% in road fatalities in 2009 in the 52 member countries of the International Transport Forum, the IRU stresses that every accident is one accident too many. This is why despite these positive figures the IRU will pursue the efforts of the commercial road transport industry to improve road safety.
IRU President, Janusz Lacny, said: “The road transport industry is committed to improving road safety and avoiding human suffering caused by accidents and thus considers accident prevention as a key priority for the IRU, its Members and any road transport operator.”
“As confirmed by the ITF data, much has been achieved, but better results are needed.
The IRU has therefore recently allocated major funding to further improve commercial road transport safety, provided that this important financial commitment is matched by credible partners or by the international donor community to jointly achieve this key IRU objective”, Mr Lacny continued.
In this respect, IRU Head of Sustainable Development, Jens Hügel, confirmed: “The IRU General Assembly recently adopted a Resolution, fully supporting the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, which underlines that IRU’s road safety objective can be further achieved by:
· Identifying the main causes of accidents involving heavy commercial vehicles by supporting accident causation studies which apply the scientific, widely accepted and internationally benchmarked ETAC methodology to effectively target the main causes of accidents;
· Supporting effective, harmonised and internationally recognised standards and programmes for vocational training of road transport professionals, which have been developed by the IRU Academy, as some 85% of accidents are caused by human error. Appropriate training thus clearly appears as the most effective way to further reduce road accidents by targeting their principle cause; and
· Introducing proven effective, innovative active and passive safety systems, such as lane departure warning systems, advanced emergency braking systems and electronic stability programmes.
