Good practices

Defective tyres are a serious risk to all road users. Road accidents and indeed tragedies can be avoided if vehicles are roadworthy and tyres are a major contributory factor in ensuring the road worthiness of a vehicle. The RSA Fatal Collisions 2008-2012 for Ireland report identified "the condition of tyres accounted for almost two thirds of the 101 vehicle factors cited as contributory to a collision". Defective tyres were very prevalent as a factor in single vehicle crashes (74%). Over half of the tyres on the 66 vehicles with defective tyres were excessively/dangerously worn, 11% were underinflated, some dangerously low. Of collisions that had tyre quality as a contributory factor, the majority of defective tyres were on cars (84%)- (6%) motorcycles. The Irish Tyre Industry Association is committed to playing our part addressing road safety challenges in the area of tyre safety by -Promoting tyre safety awareness through public campaigns. Offering our industry experts for guidance in this area to key stakeholders - Ensuring best in class standards in the tyre industry. Our objectives were: To conduct a public awareness campaign on tyre safety that would engage the public and encourage them to check their tyres. To highlight the dangers of driving with defective tyres. To educate the public on all aspects of tyre issues - tread depth, tyre pressure - looking for defects. To educate the public on their legal obligations in relation to safe tyres. To engage our members in a campaign of promoting tyre safety. Our primary audience is the general public - all those that are driving a vehicle either domestically or commercially. Our secondary audience is the membership of ITIA to promote tyre safety to the general public.

In 2020, 610 people died in traffic incidents in the Netherlands, half of them being cyclists. In 68% of traffic accidents distraction was the main cause. The usage of the mobile phone is one of the largest 'distractors'. Interpolis has a mission to eliminate traffic accidents by 2050. 77,6 percent of teenagers uses their phone on their bike. Focus groups with teenagers show that they don't realise the danger of using their phone on the bike. Moreover, research shows that they will copy this behavior when they start driving a car so there's a need to change attitude and behavior. So how do you reach teenagers who are addicted to their phone, specifically 14-17 yrs old, as they are the high risk group? And to take it a step further, how can we make them embrace a message about safety rather than reject it? Research by research company TeamAlert, assigned by Interpolis, showed us: - Teenagers (14-17 years old) are not sensitive to facts, especially when they come from 'adult' parties (e.g. insurance companies). - Teenagers are sensitive to stories from their peers. That makes it real. Therefore, YouTube and Instagram are best for safety messaging to reach teenagers - Collaborations with influencers are only effective when it's truly spot on. Teenagers are critical towards collaborations with brands. - To change behavior, it's crucial to also reach parents as conversations between teenagers and their parents is a key driver to change behavior. So, the issue should come to life from within teenagers' culture, especially through YouTube and Instagram. The most embraced culture with teenagers is Dutch hiphop, with artists seen as hero's that they listen to. But it should also touch parents and create a common ground to spark a conversation between them. To reach teenagers and parents, we created an emotional story that's recognizable to both: a first big love with all its thrills. But in this case with a sudden unhappy end, similar to reality that accidents always come out of nowhere with often terrible consequences. The story is told in a music track and a music video by one of the most popular Dutch hiphop artists and influencers, who is able to authentically carry this message. The story is based on real personal stories as research shows that stories from peers of the same age are effective in getting the attention of teenagers. The background stories are covered in a documentary. Finally, we introduce an app to help young cyclists to use their smartphone in a safe way: PhoNo. The previous app by Interpolis for smartphones and car safety, showed users make 20% less damage claims than non-users in the same risk profile. The goal was to spark massive (social) conversations between teenagers about the risks of using their smartphone on their bike. And make sure that they downloaded the PhoNo app to start cycling without distraction. Targets are: 1. Teenagers 14-17 years old and 2. Parents (to discuss the subject with their children).

The risk potential on German roads remains high: Even in 2020 with less traffic due to the Covid-pandemic, the police counted 264,000 traffic accidents with people injured or killed . Improvements have been scarce and the numbers have been stagnating over the last decade. Especially in cities, this trend is due to increased traffic volume, new means of transport (such as pedelecs, small electric vehicles) and distraction when driving. Dangerous situations are often misjudged or not recognized on time. The goal of EDDA+ (acronym for "Early Detection of Dangerous Areas in road traffic using smart data", German: FeGiS+) is to identify risks in road traffic at an early stage to avoid collisions by means of timely warnings or preventive measures. We want to achieve this by making better use of existing safety-related data and tapping into new data sources, thus contributing to better road safety. On the one hand, the EDDA+ information is to be incorporated into intelligent applications for road users to provide timely warnings of danger zones and to indicate safe routes in terms of roads, cycle paths and footpaths. On the other hand, this continuously updated data is to be compiled on a platform and made available for the first time throughout Germany to those involved in road safety work such as local authorities, police, science, engineering offices, navigation providers and car manufacturers for road safety and prevention work.

One of the major challenges in road safety that we are facing in Romania is the high number of victimization among young passengers (group age 0-14) and main reason why this is happening is the low rate of utilization of child restraint systems (only 26% of children passengers are transported in an age-appropriate child restraint system). Data was obtained through an observational study that we made last year and presented at TUV Conference :Protection of Children in Cars - December 2020. We want to address this challenge by educating future parents and parents as well as children from primary schools and kindergartens regarding correct way of travelling as young passengers as well as by increasing public awareness on this topic by a strong and constant PR campaign promoting child restraint systems and seat-belt use. Decreasing the incidence of serious road accidents in Romania involving child victims is the aim with a target of 0 deaths by 2030, in accordance with Vision Zero, the ambitious European traffic safety project, and to increase the use of car seats from 20% as it is currently to 70% by 2025. We target parents, caregivers, children.

As a result of a road accident, debris and waste from the parts from the vehicles often are left on the roads which, if not removed and promptly cleaned, can become a risk factor for the occurrence of new accidents. Due to the lack of operational resources and technical expertise, the waste from the cars, namely, oil, fuel, plastics and glasses, remain on the pavement, making them less safe and more polluted. Other times, the residues are cleaned with contaminating products and/or left on the side of the road, ending up on the ground, or simple wasted away with fire hoses to the fields, contaminating water lines and the surrounding areas. Some accidents can also cause damage to road safety equipment, which is essential for the safety of the drives or for the regular information placed on the roads, like vertical signage, protective barriers, information boards, among others. Eurosistra Portugal, Lda., with the registered brand "Seguranca e Ambiente" meaning Safety and Environment - manages, through its daily work, to act on these three main issues: Restore the Road Safety (by a proper and innovative solution and equipment for cleaning the road and removing and recycling all the waste recovered from the car accidents); the protection of the environment through the use of biological products and the removal of waste, including the liquids (that are usually washed away by other entities that work in this area); and finally the identification of damaged Urban Equipment, sent to the Civil Protection of the Townhall in which the accident occurred, in order to assure its fast replacement. Reinforcing and strengthening road safety, protecting drivers and all those who travel on the roads, as well as protecting and respecting the environment, are the basic principles on which our project is built, which are set up in the European Road Safety Charter. EUROSISTRA PORTUGAL established an ambitious objective called “ OBJECTIVE ZERO ACCIDENTS AFTER AN ACCIDENT", with the strong belief that this project has a direct and important contribution to reducing accidents caused due the existence of waste from a previous accident that was not taken care of in the proper way, whether by poor cleaning or no cleaning at all. Thus, the main objectives of this project are: - Reduce the rate of road accidents caused by the inexistent or poor cleaning of pavements after a road accident; - Ensure the correct and safe return to normal road traffic in the shortest possible time, assuring the reestablishment of road safety; - Contribute to the Environmental Protection by cleaning the roads according to legal requirements, in particular to environmental legislation, and thus, also promoting sustainable policies directed to reducing road accidents. The target audience of Eurosistra Portugal are all agents and entities that manage roads and their safety, namely the Municipalities/City Halls, Road Concessions and Civil Protection, along with other entities called upon when a car accident occurs, namely police and fireman. Since it is their responsibility to keep the roads safe, we ally to these entities to improve road safety conditions and reduce the car accidents, through establishing protocols and partnerships that allow us to implement the service on their roads and to have a closer relationship with the operational and civil protection agents.