ETSC calls on the EC for better financing Road Safety

EU Funds for Road Safety
Saving Lives on EU Roads until 2020
Financing road safety would support the principles that underpin the EU budget. Adopting measures to protect EU citizens right to life and mobility delivers a high EU added value and supports transport, one of the EU common policy areas.
The value of preventing all road collisions in 2010 would have been more than 50% greater than the EU budget11or 1.8% of EU GDP.
Putting a monetary value on prevention of loss of human life and limb can provoke strong reactions on ethical grounds. However, doing so makes it possible to assess objectively the costs and the benefits of road safety measures and to make the maximum use of generally limited resources. Based on updated values in use in ten European countries, ETSC has taken the monetary value of the human losses avoided by preventing one fatality (VPF) to be 1.70 million euro.
NGOs are also crucial in producing scientific knowledge through research and in raising the awareness of the need to take action to improve road safety by the general public. Associations of road safety victims are also important to take into account when balancing interests in EU policy making. NGOs active in the field of road safety should be supported and their networks extended. This should be both at the national level as well as the European level, in particular core funds which guarantee the coverage of an NGO’s basic running costs.

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