“European Day without a Road Death” was launched for the first time last year, from TISPOL- European Traffic Police Network and was supported by the European Commission.
The objective of this initiative, launched by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) and supported by the European Commission, is that no one should die on the roads of Europe on 21 September. In the days leading up to EDWARD, we want all road users to think – even for just a few minutes – about the risks they face, the risks they may pose to others and how they can go about reducing those risks. We believe that EDWARD can make a significant contribution towards further reducing road deaths and serious road traffic injuries.
The first Project EDWARD was a great success:
• More than 103,000 organisations and individuals signed a road safety pledge on the TISPOL website.
• More than 80 road safety actions were organised across Europe, including information and awareness-raising activities in schools and companies, workshops, conferences and competitions.
• The #ProjectEDWARD and #seatbeltselfie social media campaign reached more than 19 million people.
• According to TISPOL’s statistics, there were 43 road deaths across 31 countries on 21 September 2016. This compares with 70 fatalities on the same day in 2015. 19 countries recorded zero fatalities. While 7 other countries recorded a reduction in fatalities, compared with the same day in 2015, and 3 countries recorded an increase in fatalities.
This year, our country became part of the most European countries, marking the European Day without a road death, as well. The College of Applied Technical Sciences Tempulli and Kosovo Association of Motorization “AMRKS” organised a roundtable with representatives from the Ministry for the Kosovo Security Forces, Kosovo Police, Fire Brigade, Centre of Emergency Medicine, Kosovo Forum for road safety, traffic experts, etc.
The roundtable brought together for discussion the representatives from local institutions and actors dealing with road safety and transport issues in the country, whereby among others were also discussed issues such as:
• Actions and concrete measures of the institutions, with the aim of decreasing the traffic accidents in the roads of Kosovo.
• Difficulties in the provision of emergency services in case of road and railway accidents.
• Role of the driving schools on the proper training of young drivers and the impact of media on sensitizing drivers to eliminate road deaths as a consequence of accidents.
Muhamed Krasniqi from College “Tempulli”, qualified the road safety as alarming, by adding that accidents with injured and victims are common.
While, Colonel Sheremet Ahmeti from the Kosovo Police, said that this institution is committed in the provision of the safety for the citizens of Kosovo. He said that the months: June, July and August marked a high number of accidents with fatality.
Lieutenant-colonel Afrim Veseli from nga MKSF said that KSFs are not the first link to provide safety in the road. However, he said that they possess a big fleet of vehicles that are participants in the traffic and their contribution in this direction is that these vehicles are technically in order.