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MAKE
ROADSIDE
SAFETY
GREAT
AGAIN
In 2019, road crashes in the Member States of the European Union claimed about 22.700 lives and left more than 1.2 million people injured.
Approximately 1.35 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3.700 people lose their lives every day on the roads*. Car occupants fatalities within Europe are at 44% of all road fatalities**. There is a total of 42 road deaths per million inhabitants in the EU in 2020, even if the European Union has collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 23% over the last 5 years, the gap between actual and desired progress towards joint European Union road safety targets is widening (by over 20%)***. A total of 40% of fatal crashes occur when vehicles are run off the road. Another shocking statistic comes from 30% of all median crashes ending in severe injury or fatality. These figures show that there must be greater focus on roadside safety. It's time to MAKE ROADSIDE SAFTEY GREAT AGAIN!
* according to Association for Safe International Road Travel https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/
** according to European Commission https://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/statistics-and-analysis_en
*** referring to European Transport Safety Council https://etsc.eu/euroadsafetydata/
As manufacturer and installation company of roadside safety barriers, we are proud to follow strict quality and testing procedures to approve and maintain our products.
We provide high visibility and impeccable traceability of our products to our customers, from material certificates of raw materials to end treatment of our materials. For Europe, roadside safety barriers are construction products and therefore must be crash tested and CE certified according to European Norm EN1317 to be traded and used on European roads. Manufacturers of roadside safety barriers must follow strict testing procedures of their products and keep up a full compliance procedure to ensure perforamnce and quality of their products.
Harmonized European Norms should allow manufacturers of roadside safety barriers to offer and sell their CE certified products in all EU member states.
National public authorities block global business by implementing and forcing national specific regulations on manufacturers of roadside safety barriers and make it difficult to trade their products within Europe. By protecting their own national interests and because of means of control, public road authorities harm the development of new business markets and products, acting against European law. Road restraint systems are construction products according to "Construction Products Regulation CPR No. 305/2011". Therefore they have to be CE certified to be put on European roads. There is still powers trying to revoke certifications for road restraint systems, causing massiv harm to manufacturers of roadside barriers, which followed the procedure for certifying their products for over a decade. We believe it would be more ecologic and economic to work on a global and risk assessed approach to solving individual roadside safety situations within Europe and the world, instead of forming national regulations in each Member State of the European Union.
Did you know? If you have problems with road authorities or if you have encountered any problems with national authorities, you can reach out for support by "SOLVIT". Discriminatory red tape can make it hard to work or do business in European countries. If you are a business facing obstacles in Europe because of a public authority is not doing what is required under European law, you can get help for free and online https://ec.europa.eu/solvit/index_en.htm
Roadside safety is becoming pure commodity.
Road projects request the quickest, easiest and cheapest solution only. Even though this may not be the only sector in which such development has been seen over the years, roadside safety is becoming a commodity. Roadside safety barriers have to be "cheap" and "easy" to install. Therefore, manufacturers of road restraint systems are forced to develop more effective systems to compete with market needs. More and more requests in road and highway projects and tenders all over the European Union specify performances of road restraint systems that have nothing to do with vehicle passenger safety and road safety. The "Dream Barrier" weights 0.1 kg/m, is installed in 0.1 minutes, and costs 0.1 Euro/m. We believe this can not be the approach to roadside safety, which must aim to meet highest safety and quality standards for road users and vehicle passengers.
Concrete walls are used to build houses. Concrete walls are no roadside safety products.
Imagine what happens when you drive into a wall. Concrete walls are getting more popular and have long been lobbied on European level. Concrete walls allow public road authorities to find a reason not to do their work such as repair crashed barriers after being impacted. The argument that concrete walls are not damaged after a crash, is as false, as is the argument that concrete walls are safe for vehicle passengers. More and more dangerous concrete walls are used especially in medians of highways, risking the life’s of vehicle passengers, by reasoning that concrete walls are break-through-free. The resistance of modern steel roadside safety barriers proof in-fact that both can be guaranteed – safe redirection and effective vehicle passengers’ safety. No concrete walls should be used on roads where everybody deserves a second chance after crashing. Roadside safety barriers should be developed and used for the safety of vehicle occupants.
Find more information on www.nachgeben.com
More roadside safety for vulnerable road users.
Motorcyclists are the most vulnerable road users. However, little is done to protect motorcyclists on the roadside. The Motorcycle market seize is expected to reach more than 200 million powered-two-wheelers (PTW) worldwide. No wonder, as PTWs are most affordable and fastest forms of personal transport in many parts of the world. Half of the motorcycle accidents are one-sided; the other half are collisions with cars*. More than 4.500 fatal motorcycle accidents happen every year. Roadside safety barriers can be optimised to support the reduction of fatal accident outcomes. We have developed our "passco MPS" to support authorities and road planers to upgrade existing roadside safety barriers with our motorcyclist protection system. The "passco MPS" is crash tested according to European Norms and positively supports to avoid motorcyclists to slide under roadside safety barriers and hit sharp posts with limbs.
*According to FEMA Federation of European Motorcyclists' Association
Find more information on www.mehrsi.org
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