A plan to halve the number of road deaths in the European Union from some 40,000 each year to 20,000 by 2010 was signed by EU transport ministers at a ceremony in Dublin today.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, hosted the event at Dublin Castle.
The European Road Safety Charter was unveiled by the European Commissioner for transport, Ms Loyola de Palacio, in January. The document aims to save 20,000 lives in six years. Each year in Europe an estimated 40,000 people die as a result of road crashes. A total of 1.2 million people worldwide die each year and around 50 million are injured.
Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan
Delegates at this morning's event heard that by 2020, road traffic injuries will rise by up to 65 per cent unless "urgent preventative action" is taken. Road safety is the theme for the World Health Organisation's (WHO) annual World Health Day, which takes place tomorrow.
The WHO estimates that more than 3,000 people die in road accidents each day. A further 140,000 are daily injured and 15,000 disabled for life.
The Minister for Transport, in his role as President of the EU Council of Transport Ministers, said the charter offered a recognised forum for key interest groups in civil society to make specific road safety commitments that would contirbute to achieving the targets set out.
"The target of halving the number of road deaths in the member states by 2010 is ambitious. But ambitious it must be if we are to face up to the frightening statistic that at present 40,000 people each year die in the member states as a result of road accidents." Mr Brennan said that if the "shameful slaughter" on the roads of Europe was to end, there must be "decisive, committed action". The Charter alone would not bring about the change in behaviour of road users that must happen if deaths and injuries were to be reduced significantly.
Some 39 organisations representing industry, road-user representative bodies and private firms from across the EU signed the charter and each has pledged to promote initiatives to improve road safety. These initiatives include one in france, where fixed, electronic breathalyser machines will be installed in 10,000 clubs and discos over the next three years to allow customers to check their alcohol levels.
The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, whose daughter died in a road traffic accident, said the deaths of 40,000 people each year in the 15 EU countries was the equivalent of "one plane crash a day" or of wiping out a small town in Europe every year.
He said statistics on road traffic deaths and accidents did not tell the truth about the effects such accidents had on people. The truth was much more hurtful than the statistics, he said. Mr Cox was accompanied by three of his children, Peter, Grace and Anne.
Mr Cox said the EU recognised that the law was "not enough" to improve road safety. He said it required the wider platform of support from civil society, which was what the new charter was about.
Ms Loyola de Palacio said experience had shown that progress towards safer roads could only be achieved if society was willing to accept basic enforcement of road safety rules. The number of road deaths in the EU was "a shared responsibility", she said.
Six times Formula One World Racing Champion Michael Schumacher was at the event to highlight the issue of road safety. Mr Schumacher was commended by the EU transport commissioner for his support of the road safety initiative. She said he showed young people that they could drive, but they must drive safely and that they could "love to drive", but that they must do it safely.
However, the Ferrari driver was questioned by reporters on whether it was appropriate that he be used as a role model for road safety given that he makes his living from motor racing, a sport involving high speeds.
Mr Schumacher said this could be interpreted in two ways: one, that he was a bad example, or two, that he was a good example and had attracted a lot of people to motor racing. If people took part in motor sports or went cart racing, that got them involved in driving and made them better drivers, he said. He saw a positive aspect to participating in such motorsports because they "create abilities".
He also said that if someone had an ability to drive well, they should use such an ability to protect other drivers and not to try to "prove" themselves. The racing driver said he had already taken part in road safety campaigns to show that "10 seconds can save your life". He said he could not drive without a seatbelt, either in a racing car or in a road car.