LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss safety council, BPA, is putting up 1,400 posters around the country and police are increasing their presence near schools and crosswalks to remind drivers to stop for children on foot and on bicycles.
School starts Monday 22 September in canton Vaud and in most of Valais, with Geneva starting a week later, 29 August. Children headed back to school 15 August in the Goms Valley in Valais.
The number of serious accidents involving children 5-14 while between school and home was down in 2010, but with 180 critically injured or killed on Swiss roads last year, police are reminding drivers of their obligation to stop at a crosswalk if a pedestrian (including cyclists) is present.
Police in Vaud will be using mobile radars near schools for two weeks to remind drivers to slow down and to raise their awareness of the speed at which they are driving. They will also be handing out windshield cleaning cloths as a reminder to make sure your visibility is good.
They’ll be starting their 2011 visits to school classes to educate children about road safety. Police in Vaud made 1,348 visits to classrooms during the last school year.
Safety campaign poster for the 2011-12 school year: "Thank you for stopping for me" / Always come to a full stop
The TCS (Touring Club Suisse) offers a pointer to drivers: don’t use your hand or headlights to wave a child into an intersection because they’re more likely to run into the road without first checking traffic from both directions.
A final but critical reminder to drivers, say police, is to make sure all children under 12 or 1.5 metres in height are in child safety seats.
Children riding in a car without a seatbelt attached are three times as likely to be injured and 30 times as likely to be killed, according to Swiss statistics.
A 50kph crash, with no seatbelt, is the equivalent of a fall from the third storey of a building.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva police are calling it PréDiRe Cyclistes, a week-long focus on bicycle safety and road etiquette from 20 to 24 June, with the police officers involved using bikes themselves.
Cyclists who don’t respect the rules of the road can expect to be stopped and given a lesson plus a cycling guide published by the Swiss safety council. Police will be checking bicycles randomly for the state of the bicycle, use of helmets and bike licenses that show you have third party insurance coverage.
The campaign is mainly aimed at cyclists in the city, but motorcyclists are included, say police, who want to improve cyclist behaviour, especially respect for red lights and giving priority to pedestrians.
New Swiss road safety rules could also require headlights to be left on all day
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss parliament may move on tougher road safety measures before a new popular initiative has a chance to be put to the vote, with the upper house voting in favour of measures to clamp down on excessive speeders and to ban alcohol consumption for truck and bus drivers.
The lower house will now consider the changes approved by the upper house, a process that could take months.
One to four year prison terms for driving at “excessive speeds” or taking part in road racing would be one of the key changes, with the definition of excessive speed picking up the numbers that are part of the popular initiative registered in Bern earlier this week by RoadCross, an association for victims of road accidents: 70kph+ in 30kph zones, 100 in 50 zones and 140 in 80 zones, with no mention of autoroutes.
The upper house refused another proposal that has provoked heated debate in the past, rejecting a motion to oblige drivers over age 50 to have an eye examination in order to keep their driver’s licenses, saying this is the responsibility of the individual and would create an unwanted layer of bureaucracy.
It accepted rules that all cyclists up to age 14 would be required to wear bike helmets and that car lights should be left on all day.
New Swiss road safety review shows men 18-24 at risk for serious accidents caused by speed, alcohol
France says 1 in 10 accidents due to cell phone use
Watching a dashboard movie while driving, as this driver was doing, will soon be illegal in France
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – French road safety officials meeting in Paris 11 May agreed to a series of radical changes to crack down on speeders and drunk drivers, shortly after April figures were released that show a sharp increase in road fatalities. Poland had the highest number of road deaths of any European country in 2009, Eurostat figures show, with more than 4,500 people killed, but France was second, with 4,273, followed by Italy with just over 4,000.
France has a population eight times greater than Switzerland, but the number of road deaths in 2009 was about 12 times greater, with 349 people dying in Swiss road accidents that year.
Stiffer penalties, more prevention has worked in Switzerland, experts say
Compared to France, Switzerland has tougher road safety laws, with stiffer penalties in a number of areas and an alcohol tolerance level that is lower, 0.5.
Seat belts help, but lower speeds are the best prevention, accident statistics imply
Bfu, the Swiss accident prevention council, argues that the gradually improvement in prevention combined with harsher penalties is largely responsible for a five-fold reduction in the number of road deaths since 1971, when 1,773 people died. The number of serious injuries since 1980 in car accidents (other types of vehicles not included) has fallen by 75 percent even though drivers increased the number of kilometres driven during the period from 32 million a year to 52m.
Highly visible police checks needed
A study carried out jointly by Bfu and the Swiss Road Safety Fund and published 10 May shows that young men 18-24 run by far the highest risk of serious accidents, and that inattention, alcohol and speed are, in that order, the cause of serious road accidents. The combination of alcohol and speed is the cause of most night-time and weekend accidents, involving young men; loss of control of cars is due to these factors rather than driving ability, the study points out.
The study notes that highly visible and regular police checks for drunk driving and speeding are essential to convince drivers they might be caught: in Switzerland, with 5 million driver’s licenses, police see some 2 million cases of speeding a year, a sign that this is not the behaviour of a small minority.
Number of accidents up nearly 20% in April in France
The number of deaths on French roads rose nearly 20 percent in April, compared to a year earlier: 355 people killed. The first four months of the year show a 13 percent increase. Motorcyclists have suffered a high incidence of fatal accidents, says the French Interior Ministry.
The new measures, some of which will require parliament’s approval, include:
- fixed radars will no longer be announced and signs for them will be removed
- radar alert systems for drivers will be outlawed
- 1,000 new radars will be installed on French roads by the end of 2012
- fines will rise sharply for screens other than GPS systems within the driver’s visual field
- penalty for driving with more than 0.8 alcohol in the blood will be increased
- driving at a speed more than 50 kph over the limit will become a criminal offense, with a prison term as punishment.
French law currently fines a driver caught going more than 50 kph €1,500, with six points removed from his or her driver’s license. Repeat offenders have their vehicle impounded and the driver risks three months in prison in addition to a €3,750 fine and six points taken off the driver’s license, according to AFP news agency in Le Monde.
Drivers caught using cell phones (except hands-free) will face steeper fines and the loss of three rather than the current two driver’s license points.
The French inter-ministerial group agreed to increase from six to eight the points lost by a driver who is caught with more than the legal alcohol limit, citing studies that show a driver who is over the limit is eight times more likely to be involved in a fatal road accident.
Ban on commercial radar alerts part of new system
UK motorist driving on left causes serious accident in St Gallen
Accident caused when young man drove on the wrong side of the road - Photo St Gallen Police
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Drivers who follow other cars too closely on highways are committing a “serious” and not a “moderately serious” crime and should have their drivers licenses lifted for three months, the Swiss high court in Lausanne has ruled.
The court ruled in favour of the Service de Navigation in Vaud, which had taken a driver’s license away for three months. He appealed and saw the sentence reduced to two months by a Vaud cantonal court. Today’s ruling dismisses the earlier Vaud one.
The ruling comes the day after the Swiss government set out its plan, Via Sicura, to improve road safety in the country and reduce by 25 percent the number of road deaths and injuries.
The number of deaths has been reduced in the past 10 years by 40 percent, thanks to security measures, says Bern, but 349 people lost their lives in 2009 on Swiss roads and 4,708 were critically injured, roughly a dozen a day.
The cost in human suffering is too high, argues the government, but the cost to the health care system and to the economy is also unacceptable.
According to the high court, the driver who followed another at between 5 and 10 metres was taking far too great a risk: he would have had only 0.3 seconds to brake suddenly and avoid the driver in front of him on the A9 where he was caught tailgating, and he would have needed four times longer to stop.
Meanwhile, among this week’s serious road accidents in Switzerland was a head-on crash in St Gallen that sent a woman in her sixties to hospital. A 24-year-old Englishman was driving on the left side of the road, probably out of habit, according to local police, and he crashed into the woman’s car.
Via Sicura’s improved road safety plan
The new Via Sicura plan, under study for several months, was presented Wednesday by the Federal Council to parliament, where it already has strong support.
TSR reports that restrictions introduced in recent years, including lowering the alcohol level that is tolerated, initially met resistance, but that the reduction in accidents has been widely accepted by the Swiss as proof that safety measures are effective.
Swiss police at the start of every school year run campaigns to emphasize road safety near schools
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 63-year-old school crossing guard in Vouvry, at the eastern end of Lake Geneva, is in stable condition with head injuries after she was hit by a car and dragged by it at 13:10 Monday afternoon, 6 September. She was conscious when she was taken to the nearby Monthey hospital.
The accident was witnessed by a number of children returning to school after lunch, and they are being given counselling.
The driver of the car was a 54-year-old Zurich woman who lives in canton Valais. She was arrested and has had her driver’s license confiscated after the accident. She was found to have an alcohol level of 2,03 %o, more than four times the legal limit. According to police, she did not see the crossing guard as she came up over a hill “due to her physical state.”
Police patrol roads near schools in Valais, Switzerland
Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Parents and children in canton Valais are getting ready for school. Students in Haut Valais began classes Monday 16 August while children in the French-speaking part of the canton start school Monday 23 August. School opens in Vaud as well 23 August while canton Geneva prepares for a 30 August back-to-school Monday. Several of the international schools open their doors 1 September.
Road safety around schools is increasingly high on parents’ and authorities’ list of concerns.
Cantonal and municipal police in Valais, home to many of Switzerland’s resorts, are urging motorists to slow down and be prepared to break in school zones, especially around school crosswalks and public bus stops. They will be out in force to remind drivers, as a preventive action initially, but speed checks will soon be stepped up to ensure motorists remember school safety.
Police in several cantons are advising parents:
- Do not wait for your child on the other side of the street, walk with your child holding her/his hand
- Do not take the shortest road to school but the safest
- Do not park the car in front of the school, blocking the view or the entry to other students
- Remember that in canton Valais, all children age 7 and under must be in an appropriate child seat.
Bicycle safety campaign kicks off in Geneva
Geneva, Swizterland (GenevaLunch) – Bicyclists being stopped by the police will be a sight more frequent than usual next week in Geneva.
In the wake of a series of bicycle accidents, including a fatal one, the police department has announced it will rev up its “PreDiRe Cyclistes” safety campaign from 21 to 25 June.
The first campaign of the year geared towards bike safety will feature cops in bikes, on the lookout for bicyclists that don’t properly stop at traffic lights, do not yield to pedestrians, and those who do not ride well in traffic.
Part of the safety campaign includes reminding bicyclists that helmets reduce the risks of head injuries in case of an accident.
On 27 May a 40-year old man died after being struck by a tram near Plainpalais, and in June two other people crashed and fell near Rue de Stand and were severely injured.
The Irish have made a sharp u-turn in attitudes towards drinking in driving in the past 10 years. The Road Safety Authoritiy (RSA) in its annual run-up to St Patrick’s day festivities in Ireland carried out a survey that shows 65 percent of those polled now believe “that there is simply no amount of alcohol that you can drink if driving,” according to the RSA survey results published 16 March. The results compare to 2000, when 30 percent of people said there should be a zero limit and 2006, when the number had risen to 49 percent.
Lower Irish road death numbers linked to government road safety campaigns and legal restrictions on drink/driving are credited with the change. The government is proposing to lower the limit from the current 0.8 per thousand to 0.5 (Ed. note: Switzerland has a limit of 0.5).
Gay Byrne, Irish TV personality who chairs the RSA, said that “The results are astonishing and show that there has been a profound change in people’s attitudes and behaviour over the past decade. A clear majority of people now believe that drink driving is not normal behaviour, which is the polar opposite of the attitudes that were prevalent in Irish society 10 years ago.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The time has arrived for the annual Christmas party reminder: don’t drive if you plan to drink. The limit in Switzerland is 0.5 per 1,000, which means about one glass of wine. That said, Christmas parties, at the office or elsewhere, often catch people by surprise, and if you have one too many, consider phoning Nez Rouge to have someone come and drive you home in your own car. The Geneva area service also covers neighbouring France.
The holiday season service starts this weekend, with drivers on call 11 and 12 December, and then throughout the holidays but with dates and times varying slightly from one region to another.
African roads are the world's worst, for numbers of accidents (image: WHO, click on image to view larger)
Geneva / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roads kill 1.3 million people every year – some 3,000 people a day – and the United Nations estimates that the number will rise by 60 percent in the next few years. Half of those who die are pedetsrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Switzerland’s transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, told the first ministerial level world conference on road safety, which opened in Moscow Thursday 19 November, that deaths and injuries can be reduced if safety regulations are increased and enforced. He pointed out that Switzerland has reduced its road traffic deaths more than fourfold since 1971 despite a large increase in traffic during that time.
Leuenberger, who presided over one of three key discussions at the United Nations WHO conference, says that safety education campaigns are essential, but they can’t hope to compete with James Bond style advertising on the part of the automobile industry.
Clos-du-Doubs, Jura, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two motorcyclists were surprised by a bend in the road in separate accidents within an hour of each other, between Essertfallon and Soubey. The first fell but was uninjured but the second was hospitalized after colliding with an oncoming vehicle, reports 20 Minutes (Fre).
Nyon, Switzerland (Tribune de Genève, Fre) – A pilot road project designed to save motorcyclists’ lives on the treacherous route between Nyon and St Cergue was opened 19 May, reports the Tribune. The motorcyclist is physically reminded to slow down thanks to a coating on the surface of the road in strategic spots, with special strips that alert riders. The strips are similar to those on the approaches to French toll booths on the autoroute; they make a tickling noise.
A new US study published in a psychology journal today shows that mobile phones are a greater danger “than even the chattiest drivers,” and pose more of a danger on the road than previously thought, adding to a growing body of evidence about their negative impact on road safety. Reuters
