8 Partnering Organizations from five European countries (Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Spain), together with the EuroRAP international organisation, were gathered in Athens during the last two days (10-11 October) as part o
f the European co-funded project SLAIN (Saving Lives Assessing and Improving TEN-T Road Network Safety). The conference was organized by the Road Safety Institute (RSI) ‘Panos Mylonas’, which participates in the project as the partner from Greece, and took place yesterday at the European Commission Delegation Offices in Greece and today at the Offices of the European Parliament in Greece. SLAIN has a duration of 2 years and it is funded by the European Commission under the Connecting European Facility (CEF). Partners, together with EuroRAP, are developing good practice and technical guidelines for the implementation of the European Road Safety Directive (2008/96/EC), which has been incorporated into Greek legislation. Thus, like the new Directive that will soon come into force, the SLAIN project builds on network-level road safety assessment practices rather than road sections. At the same time, risk maps are developed that are either based on historical data or inspection of the infrastructure. These maps are in accordance with EuroRAP international protocols/methodologies enabling direct comparison between different countries, since the same methodology is applied internationally in 100 different countries to date. During the Conference, the partners presented the project activities, the good practices followed in other countries as well as the latest developments in the implementation of the Directive. Mr. Dimitris Papagiannidis, Director General for Transportation, Strategic Planning and Road Safety, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, referred to the progress of the National Strategic Road Safety Plan 2011-2020 and stated that “Although Greece remains in the top positions with 64 deaths per 1 million inhabitants, the situation is very encouraging and reflects the work implemented to date as Greece is the only country which achieves the goal of reducing by 50% the number of traffic accidents from 2011 to 2020. This effort will continue with the new Road Safety Program 2021-2030 which is underway. The program SLAIN consists one of the best efforts in Europe, and its implementation in Greece by bodies coordinated by RSI “Panos Mylonas” is praiseworthy and will have a valuable effect in the national effort to reduce road accidents. ” “We are very pleased that the European Council has recently adopted the revised rules setting out a more systematic approach to safer road infrastructure. One of the main objectives of CEF SLAIN project is exactly this to support member states to come closer to the implementation of the Directive 2008/96/EC and to prepare the European road network to accommodate autonomous vehicles” said EuroRAP Secretary General and Project Coordinator, Mrs. Lina Konstantinopoulou. “I would like to encourage also other member states to get involved in our project activities and exchange best practices with other front runner countries such Greece, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Belgium and UK. I am particularly pleased to see that Greek Pilot is progressing very well thanks to the ongoing support by the Ministry of Infrastructure and RSI.” “In RSI ‘Panos Mylonas’ we feel indeed challenged to continue, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the work we started with EURORAP in 2010 through the SLAIN project dealing with key issues on Road Safety, such as the support and amendment of the Directive 2008/96/EC and the EC proposal 2018/0129 (COD) amending the Directive, in particular addressing new methods of safety ranking and the proactive safety inspections”, said RSI “Panos Mylonas” President, Mrs. Vassiliki Danelli-Mylona. “In this respect, we welcome the EuroRAP Secretary General and the SLAIN partners in Greece and we very much hope to a constructive cooperation that will benefit Road Safety for Greece and Europe”.