Apparentemente, nulla di nuovo. Ma la notizia vera, nelle ultime statistiche europee sulla mortalità causata da camion, bus e veicoli commerciali leggeri, sta proprio qui: nonostante si sappia che ogni incidente che coinvolge uno di questi mezzi rischia di uccidere più persone rispetto alla media, non sono ancora pronte le contromisure di cui la Ue discute da tempo.
È il caso della nuova direttiva per cronotachigrafi meno taroccabili o quella che renda obbligatori sui mezzi pesanti gli alcolocks (test dell’alcol a ogni avviamento, con blocco del motore se il conducente risulta positivo) oppure ancora di quella che introduca i limitatori di velocità sui velocissimi furgoni, utilizzati soprattutto per le vorticose consegne porta a porta.
Per questo, come leggete nel comunicato qui sotto, l’Etsc (l’organo europeo che supporta la Commissione Ue sulla sicurezza dei trasporti), è tornato a sollecitare queste misure. Sottolineando che la mortalità causata dai mezzi pesanti è diminuita e anche sensibilmente, ma continua ad essere alta rispetto alla media.
Goods and passenger transport vehicles give reason for concern despite drop in deaths
17 April 2013, Brussels – In the European Union 4,254 people lost their lives in collisions involving heavy goods vehicles, 3,999 in collisions with light goods vehicles and 722 in collisions involving buses or coaches, out of the total number of 30,239 road deaths recorded in 2011, according to a Road Safety PIN1 Flash2 published today. “Progress in reducing deaths in collisions with heavy goods vehicles and buses has been faster than the general reduction of road deaths in the EU,” said Antonio Avenoso, ETSC3 Executive Director upon publication. “However, the number of deaths per distance travelled for heavy goods vehicles, as well as buses and coaches, is larger than for the average vehicle fleet, so we urge the EU and Member States to maintain their focus on these vehicles. The deaths in such collisions add an important dimension of externalities to the transport of goods and passengers,” said Mr. Avenoso.
Car occupants amount to half of the people killed in collisions involving a HGV, pedestrians to 15%, cyclists to 7% and riders of powered two-wheeled vehicles (PTW) to 6%. Taken together, the drivers and passengers of the HGVs make up 12% of the deaths.4 “It is therefore instrumental that decision-makers should not lose focus of large vehicles when planning and implementing road safety policies,” said Mr. Avenoso.
The finalisation of the revision of the tachograph regulation5 is currently underway and the PIN Flash also points to the need to prioritise especially the enforcement of offences, and tackle fraud. ETSC welcomed that the proposal included the intention to ensure a minimum degree of harmonisation of sanctions in relation to the tachograph rules6. As vans are being used more and more especially ‘for last mile’ deliveries, we would stress the need for the European Commission to consider as a matter of priority the introduction of speed management devices such as speed limiters and Intelligent Speed Adaptation systems in their current stakeholder consultation.
“ETSC strongly believes that the promotion and large-scale roll out of life-saving technologies – such as Intelligent Speed Assistance and alcohol interlocks – should be a priority for these vehicles. Training of road users will also reduce the number of road deaths in collisions with these types of vehicles. Moreover, as most of the HGVs, LGVs, buses and coaches in road traffic are driven in a work context, employers have an important role to play in implementing and even going beyond legislative efforts”, concluded Mr. Avenoso.
