Hungary received the Road Safety PIN Award 2012 of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) because it achieved the best reduction in road deaths. Dr. László Felkai, Sate Secretary at the Ministry of Interior and Mr. Zoltán Schváb, Deputy State Secretary for Transport at the Ministry of National Development received jointly the Award on 20 June 2012 in Brussels.
Hungary has reduced its number of road deaths by 49% since 2001. As the number of road deaths was lower by 14% in 2011 than in 2010 Hungary is among the leaders of Europe. The prize-awarding body highlighted that the Hungarian progress is more commendable because Hungary signed up to the EU road safety target in 2004 when it joined the European Union. Hungary aimed to reduce the number of road deaths by 30% by 2010 but has achieved this target by 2009. The number of people killed in fatal accidents has halved during a ten years period in Hungary.
Dr. László Felkai said: Twenty years ago the travel behavior was dramatic in Hungary. Appropriate amendments of the legal background, the physical and technical conditions contributed to that Hungary received this significant Award. In order to improve road safety the National Accident Prevention Committee underwent fundamental reforms in 1992, which achieved considerable success in the field of domestic road safety. An IT system was developed, responsible for receiving and managing information related to violations to be imposed an administrative fine. Due to the automated processing of data, there are no possibilities for human intervention. The State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior added that in the future the focus has to be on the effective organization of roadside checks, but most importantly on achieving that participants of transport realize traffic rules serve their security.
Mr. Zoltán Schváb on behalf of the Ministry of National Development stated that national road safety measures involve modernizing traffic education, reforming the driver training system, supporting accident prevention and R&D activities, enforcing aspects of road safety with regard to roadwork more effectively. In line with European efforts, improving the road safety situation of vulnerable travelers, motorcyclist, cyclist and children is also a priority. The most important element of the work on the field of road safety is managing the human factor, because the majority of accidents are a result of the reckless or offending behavior of travelers. Increasing the willingness of obeying regulations is a key issue that requires the creation of an adequate legislative environment.
The European Transport Safety Council is a Brussels-based independent non-profit organization established in 1993. The ETSC offers professional consultancy in transport safety questions for the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States. The Council has published since 2007 the results of its annual report on the Annual Conference organized every June (http://www.etsc.eu/documents/PIN_Report_6_web.pdf). At the same time the Council acknowledges the countries which achieved significant development in the field of road safety with PIN Award. In previous years France (2007), Portugal (2008), Spain and Latvia (2009), Estonia and Ireland (2010), Sweden and Lithuania (2011) were honored.
(Ministry of National Development)
