BFU Director calls for more consistent political support
Published: Saturday, Jul 13th 2024, 05:50
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In view of the increase in road accidents, the Director of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BFU) has called for more political support. Politicians must "back up the Federal Roads Office more consistently", said BFU Director Stefan Siegrist.
In an interview with Tamedia published on Saturday, Siegrist said that politicians should focus on serious road accidents in built-up areas. "After all, we are talking about 240 road deaths and 4,000 serious injuries," said the BFU Director, referring to last year's figures.
The number of serious injuries reached 4096 in 2023, the highest level in the past ten years. This was revealed by the BFU's safety barometer published at the end of June. Twelve people were seriously injured or killed on Swiss roads every day. According to Siegrist, a trend reversal towards more injuries must be assumed.
The aim of the Federal Roads Office (Astra) is to reduce the number of road deaths to 100 and the number of serious injuries to 2,500, according to the interview. Siegrist believes this is realistic. "If we want it to work, we have to go one better," he said. A Switzerland without any road deaths is not possible.
False safety for pedestrians
The number of road accidents could be further reduced without restricting mobility. The BFU Director cited crosswalks as a specific example. This is often wrongly understood as a safety measure. No pedestrian crossing is better than a poorly designed one. It is important, for example, that it is clearly visible by day and night. Compared to 2022, the number of pedestrian fatalities rose from 40 to 46 last year and the number of serious injuries from 497 to 522.
According to the BFU director, other means are known: Speed reductions, self-explanatory road design, raising awareness and police checks. There is no panacea for preventing road traffic accidents - this is also known.
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