MEPs this month voted for strict new measures intended to halve the deaths on Europe's roads. At present some 45,000 people are killed every year, a third of whom are under the age of 24. Drinking and driving is considered to be responsible for 9000 of those deaths.
A further 1.6 million are injured, which means that one in three EU citizens would be hospitalised at some time in their life as a result of a road accident.
Parliament wants to reduce the number of deaths to a maximum of 25,000 before the year 2010. To do so, it proposes tightening drink driving laws through setting a blood alcohol limit of 0.5mg/ml, harmonising speed limits, and introducing more safety features in the design of roads and cars, such as the Swedish system of daytime lights on cars. MEPs want further research into the question.
Sweden, which has the strictest alcohol limits, at 0.2mg/ml, also has the best accident record. It has just six deaths per 100,000, while Portugal, whose figure is 29 per 200,000, is the worst.
As well as this human tragedy the Commission estimates that the economic costs arising from medical expenses, police and emergency services, damage to property, and lost economic output of the killed and injured, amount to about Ecu 45 billion a year, or around 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent of GDP. The cost of each person killed in traffic accidents therefore comes out at Ecu 1 million. Indeed a number of safety organisations argue that these indirect figures underestimate the real price of accidents, which could be as high as Ecu 100 billion, plus a further Ecu 62 billion for the pain, grief and suffering that is caused.
These worrying statistics, which are accompanied by a seemingly unstopable growth in road transport, has led to growing acceptance that action must be taken at local, national and European level. Jim Fitzsimons (Leinster, UFE) however was not convinced that reducing the alcohol limit would make much of a dent in the figures. The real problem, he said, was to tackle persistent drunk drivers. Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock however, supported lowering the drink driving limit but did go along with the idea of setting Euro-wide targets. This was for each individual member state, he felt.