Company employees

Since 29 April 2024, AASR has addressed road safety risks identified through direct contact with foreign workers, employers, vehicle rental operators and public authorities in Romania.

Many third-country nationals arrive with limited knowledge of Romanian traffic legislation, road signs, priority rules and the responsibilities associated with different types of vehicles. These difficulties are particularly relevant in delivery services, where workers regularly use bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters and cars in busy urban traffic.

Language barriers make the situation more complex. Workers may receive written instructions or attend training without fully understanding the rules they are expected to follow. Differences in previous driving experience and familiarity with local traffic conditions can increase the risk of mistakes.

Through discussions with foreign workers and observations gathered during preventive activities alongside the Bucharest Traffic Police, AASR identified the need for practical explanations in participants' native languages and earlier intervention, before workers start delivery activities or receive rented vehicles.

The initiative addresses these risks through cooperation between civil society, public authorities, employers and foreign workers. Its purpose is to improve understanding of Romanian legislation, encourage responsible behaviour and protect both workers and the wider public who share the roads with them.

Roadside workers are among the most exposed and least protected road users in Europe. Every day, road maintenance crews, recovery operators and temporary workers perform their duties only a few meters away from live traffic.

According to the Spanish Traffic Authority (DGT), seven roadside workers were killed on interurban roads in Spain in 2024: five tow-truck operators and two road maintenance and conservation workers. Similar risks exist across Europe wherever temporary roadworks, lane closures or roadside interventions take place.

Research by RACE-GOODYEAR and Ponle Freno-AXA has shown that a significant proportion of pedestrian fatalities on roads occur during signaling and roadside intervention activities, particularly in low-visibility conditions and on high-speed roads.

The underlying challenge is operational blindness. Temporary work zones have traditionally been protected through physical signage and manual reporting. Control centres often have limited real-time visibility of the exact location and status of roadside operations. If a cone is displaced, knocked over or removed, there is no automatic notification. Drivers only become aware of the hazard when they physically see the work zone, sometimes too late to react safely.

Our initiative addresses this challenge by transforming temporary roadside hazards into digital, real-time traffic events that can be shared instantly across the connected mobility ecosystem.

Road safety is often viewed as a transport-sector issue, while the role of employers, transport purchasers and public organisations remains largely overlooked. Yet work-related mobility has a major impact on road safety. In Sweden, approximately 45% of all fatal road crashes involve work-related travel or transport activities, either because a road user was travelling for work or because a work-related transport was involved.

At the same time, many organisations do not systematically address road safety within their occupational health and safety management, sustainability work, procurement processes or transport operations. Significant safety potential remains untapped, particularly regarding safe speeds, seat belt use, safe vehicles, impairment prevention and safety requirements in purchased transport services.

The initiative addresses this gap by helping organisations understand their responsibility for road safety and by providing practical support for integrating road safety into everyday management processes. It targets employers, transport operators and transport purchasers across both public and private sectors, recognising that nearly all organisations generate travel and transport that affect employees, suppliers and other road users.

The overall challenge is therefore not a lack of technical road safety knowledge, but how to embed road safety into organisational decision-making, leadership, culture and management systems.

To warn road users of a danger on a road section, for instance following an accident, and to divert the traffic in a safe direction, traditionally wind-powered torches made of wax material are used. This solution implies some relevant road safety problems. First, exposure and risks for operators, on one side of being hit by vehicles while torches are placed on the road surface and turned on, on the other side of being wounded by open flames. Furthermore, damage of the asphalt on which torches are placed during use, compromising its useful time, and lack of practicality since they are made of fibrous materials and wax and can’t be extinguished even if no longer needed.
Every year road workers and emergency operators are injured or killed while deploying temporary warning devices in live traffic environments. Flash-Led was conceived to eliminate this exposure by enabling remote deployment of warning systems and significantly improving operator safety.
The present invention relates to a road signalling system aimed to substitute the traditional use of wind-powered torches, allowing an effective signalling of danger and/or obstruction and/or traffic channelling, ensuring the complete operators safety, avoiding infrastructure damages and, furthermore, informing road users through road navigation platforms. The solution includes n. 4 electric movable elements signalling with high visibility LEDs, remotely controlled by an operator from a plurality of possible schemes and arranged in an easily transportable container, which can reports the danger to users through platforms like Google/Waze etc.

The Short Course in Road Safety, Mobility and Health addressed the need for stronger interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between road safety, health, mobility and safe participation in transport. Road safety challenges are not only technical or enforcement-related; they are also influenced by human behaviour, health status, ageing, disability, rehabilitation needs, distraction, professional practice, and wider mobility systems.

The initiative responded to a gap in structured education for professionals whose work may affect, advise or support road users, but who may not always receive formal training on the links between health, mobility and road safety. The course aimed to improve awareness of safe mobility, medical and functional considerations, rehabilitation/adaptations, human factors, active travel, and the wider policy context, including Vision Zero and Ireland’s Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030.

A key challenge addressed was bringing together diverse professional perspectives so that road safety is understood as a shared responsibility across health, transport, rehabilitation, public health and related disciplines.

Roadside workers are among the most exposed and least protected road users in Europe. Every day, road maintenance crews, recovery operators and temporary works teams perform their duties only a few meters away from live traffic.
According to the Spanish Traffic Authority (DGT), seven roadside workers were killed on interurban roads in Spain in 2024: five tow-truck operators and two road maintenance and conservation workers. Similar risks exist across Europe wherever temporary roadworks, lane closures or roadside interventions take place.
Research by RACE-GOODYEAR and Ponle Freno-AXA has shown that a significant proportion of pedestrian fatalities on roads occur during signalling and roadside intervention activities, particularly in low-visibility conditions and on high-speed roads.
The underlying challenge is operational blindness. Temporary work zones have traditionally been protected through physical signage and manual reporting. Control centres often have limited real-time visibility of the exact location and status of roadside operations. If a cone is displaced, knocked over or removed, there is no automatic notification. Drivers only become aware of the hazard when they physically see the work zone, sometimes too late to react safely.
Our initiative addresses this challenge by transforming temporary roadside hazards into digital, real-time traffic events that can be shared instantly across the connected mobility ecosystem.