Time to end scandal on the roads

The Belgians, it is said, drive like the Italians – only without the skill. The joke, if such it is, contains a grain of truth. Although all drivers are different, there are national characteristics. Roads – and how people use them – are a very visible example of Europe’s cultural complexity. To drive through the centre of a small German town is a very different experience from driving through the centre of a small Italian town. Roads in rural Ireland are different from the roads in rural Sweden.

So there are plenty of reasons not to be surprised by the divergent numbers presented by the European Commission this week about deaths on Europe’s roads. Such is Europe’s diversity and such is the diversity of roads, cars, lifestyles and much else, that differences in figures for accidents, deaths and injuries are to be expected. The figures range from 38 deaths per million inhabitants in the United Kingdom to 130 deaths per million in Greece and Romania.

Nevertheless, there is something jaw-droppingly shocking about the scale of the disparities. While Latvia has reduced its road deaths from 236 per million in 2001 to 112 per million in 2009, and Estonia from 146 per million to 75 per million, Greece’s efforts are pathetic: from a scandalous 172 per million, to a still scandalous 130 per million. In Romania and Malta, the number of fatalities actually increased between 2001 and 2009.

The Commission is calling for the European Union to halve its road deaths. Recognising that the causes of accidents are many, the Commission argues that the numbers of accidents can and should be reduced by a combination of measures: better road design, safer cars, better education of drivers, stricter enforcement of the rules of the road.

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On some of these points – notably the cross-border enforcement of road traffic offences committed by drivers from one member state while on the territory of another – the European Union has a part to play. But the Commission – sensitive to some of those cultural sensitivities about driving – is fighting shy of ironing out all the differences. Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport, sees no need for a common maximum speed limit across the entire EU.

Nevertheless, the EU – and its citizens – are arguably too tolerant of some of the differences. What the figures show is what can be achieved by some governments – local, regional and national – to make roads safer. The Dutch, Swedes and Britons lead the way in road design and enforcing road safety. What the figures also show is that other governments – local, regional and national – are failing their citizens. There is no possible cultural eccentricity that can justify death rates that are three times higher in some parts of the EU than in others. That is a scandal that should not be allowed to continue.

The obvious analogy here is with smoking. If drivers were only killing themselves, and doing so voluntarily, perhaps government intervention should be limited. But just as there are passive victims of smoking, so there are innocent victims of those who break speed limits, drive without safety belts and while intoxicated.

For a long time, governments hesitated to take action on smoking, lagging behind the medical evidence. But in many parts of Europe, the social acceptance of smoking has changed in recent years, helped by bans on smoking in public places. What Europe needs is a similar change of attitude to dangerous driving. There is some evidence that attitudes to drink-driving have shifted, even if other dangerous behaviour (notably mobile phone use) is still tolerated.

A shift in social norms is what is required, and the experience with smoking suggests that lawmakers can help achieve such change.

The potential savings – measured in medical costs or lives preserved – might do wonders for the Greek economy.