12 European countries registered ZERO road fatalities at the control day of the 2024 ROADPOL Safety Days campaign.

The news came after final completion of data received from 32 ROADPOL member countries of which 20 took active part in the European Roads Policing Network’s flagship annual campaign. It was carried out in the week of 16-22 September with the goal of achieving the ZERO for at least one single day.

Topic

This year the campaign focused on aggressive road behavior with the aim of mitigating the impact of aggressive behaviors in road traffic such as risky driving including speeding, tailgating, abrupt change of lanes, cutting off drivers, brake checking and honking. All forms of road rage such as engaging in aggressive or violent behavior toward other drivers, yelling, gesturing, fighting or using the vehicle as a weapon were also in the focus. Drugged driving and illegal organized and spontaneous street racing were also addressed. The campaign was mostly directed to young drivers in the 18-30 age group which is proved to be most prone to aggressive and risky behavior as road users.

Achievement

On the control day of this years campaign, September 18th, all participants reported either ZERO fatalities or a number considerably lower than the average. The 12 ZERO-death champions are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, North Macedonia and Portugal with their number being the same as the one from the campaign a year ago. Overall 38 fatalities were reported on the day throughout the continent which is an 11% rise compared to last year. However, this figure still reflects an overall 30% drop from the daily average of 55 road fatalities typically seen on EU roads, according to statistics published by the European Commission.

Events

Numerous public events were organized during the week with the aim of attracting public attention to the subject of road safety and safe mobility including initiatives from governmental and civil organizations, educational institutions and private companies. The #zeromeanslife hashtag introduced in 2023 was used more than 350 times only on Facebook compared to 150 times last year. The hashtag was created in order to keep track of organised events and increase measurability of the general campaign effort. Hundreds of photos and videos were uploaded to social media in publications mentioning ROADPOL and carrying the #zeromeanslife.

Challenge

“The numbers are encouraging, but we are still far from achieving the Vision Zero goal,” commented ROADPOL General Secretary Damyan Vladinov. “This underscores the need for continued efforts to prove that the vision can become a reality. We must strengthen our approach with a combination of modern road policing and thorough prevention strategies. However, the police cannot accomplish this alone. We urge all institutions—national and international—educational bodies, private companies, and every road user to take responsibility in traffic. By working together, we can reach zero fatalities sooner rather than later,” Mr. Vladinov added.

The operation was organized under the STRIDER III project, co-financed by the European Union.