Transport safety is not equally distributed across Europe. There is what one can call a “North-South-Divide” in European transport safety. While Northern European countries have developed and implemented plans and policies that have significantly improved road safety, the South of Europe generally lies below an EU-average.

With the EU enlargement in 2004, this unequal balance is likely to be reinforced: an increased transport volume will bear additional risks for those countries which are already rather “unsafe”. Without appropriate policies the current situation in the accession countries is likely to worsen and might lead to a permanent situation in which the “North-South Divide” is complemented with a “West-East Divide”.

However, there is no reason why such an unbalanced transport safety topography cannot be re-balanced by ways of appropriate policy-making. Experts from across Europe agree that safety in these countries is not an impossibility, but rather a question of cultivating that which has fallen dry.

It is this background against which the proposed ETSC-project unfolds. The overall aim is to contribute to a durable improvement of transport safety in the “SEC-Belt”, i. e. the Southern, Eastern and Central European countries. Hence, this project seeks to translate a European safety vision into practical measures to improve the safety of transport users within the SEC-Belt Countries. The project will raise awareness for the introduction of measures within six priority areas: user behaviour, vehicle technology, road infrastructure, road technology, information and databases, evaluation of national road safety policies.

The project comprises 3 phases and lasts over 3 years, from January 2004 to December 2006.

Phase I (Identifying Risks & Opportunities) addresses safety practitioners and road users in the SEC-Belt countries. It will explicitly deal with the three classical activity areas of transport safety policies: the vehicles, the users and the roads. Hence, it will identify the risks and opportunities in user behaviour, vehicle technology, road infrastructure and road technology.

Phase II (Evaluating Data & Policies) addresses international safety experts. It will focus on overarching transport safety issues such as the evaluation of data and policies. Hence, it will specifically look at information and databases as well as evaluation of national road safety policies.

Phase III (Promoting Practice & Behaviour) addresses local, national and European policy-makers. It will promote best transport safety practice and behaviour in the SEC-Belt countries over a period of three years. The phase will also lead to the establishment of an ETSC Safer Cities Network gathering European towns and cities committed to the integration of road safety into public health and general accident prevention policies.

This ETSC project places road users (particularly the vulnerable ones) at its heart and will seek to make a significant contribution towards the EU target of halving road deaths in the EU by 2010.