World Bank urges Romania to improve road safety

TINNews |

The World Bank has asked the Romanian Government to enhance road safety across the country in order to minimise deaths and injuries on roads nationally.

As part of this initiative, the World Bank has teamed-up with the Romanian Ministry of Transport and the National Road Authority (Autoritatea Rutiera Româna) and European Transport Safety Council to co-host the Road Safety in Romania – Challenges and Opportunities conference.

The conference was held in order to improve road safety in the country, as it is reported to have an unhealthy road safety record in the European Union (EU).

Records suggested that nearly 2,000 people have died in 2015 and another 9,000 were injured in road incidents.

The incident rate in Romania is reported to be double the average in the EU, and its road safety record is three times worse than countries such as Sweden, Denmark, or the UK.

It is reported that the economic cost of this tragic loss of life is estimated anywhere between RON4bn to RON10bn (€1bn to €2.5bn).

World Bank Romania and Hungary country manager Elisabetta Capannelli said: "Romania will have little chance of achieving its target of reducing fatalities on roads by 50% by 2020, unless effective measures are put in place as soon as possible.

"Romania will have little chance of achieving its target of reducing fatalities on roads by 50% by 2020, unless effective measures are put in place as soon as possible."

"The World Bank is very pleased to have supported the Government of Romania in carrying out a comprehensive review of road infrastructure safety management and we hope that our recommendations on addressing ‘Black Spots’ and other related challenges will support the government in meeting its road safety objectives.”

The World Bank has agreed to provide a list of recommendations to the Romanian National Road Authority, as part of its technical assistance support.

Recommendations will primarily focus on minimising road casualties by upgrading road-infrastructure management system, and focusing on improving the dangerous sections of different roads.

Other recommendations also include development of an automatic speed enforcement system, modernising a crash database in order identify and address causes of the incident, improving monitoring of safety policies, as well as incorporating international and domestic best practices.

The best practices that could be incorporated in Romania include installation of medians, road-side barriers, implementing speed limit at intersections without traffic lights, as well as at the pedestrian crossings.

The World Bank further added that it will continue to support Romanian authorities in improving road safety.