GRSP joins in regional road safety programme in Northern Poland Region(2010-01-19)
The Road Safety Council of the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Region in Poland has invited the Global Road Safety Partnership-Poland to join their ambitious and comprehensive road safety program, which aims to reduce road deaths and accidents over the next three years.
Members of the Regional Road Safety Council and the Partnership said they are joining forces to address "the enormous social and material losses as a result of road accidents" in the country and the region.
In 2008, Poland saw 67,534 road casualties, including 5,437 deaths and 62,097 injuries. In the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Region, there were 224 deaths and 2,948 injuries in a total number of 2,241 road crashes in 2008.
The new cooperative effort was formalized in a letter of intent signed Dec. 10th, 2009 in the city of Olsztyn between GRSP Poland and the Governor of the Warmia-Mazury Region. The programme will be based on the key safety efforts in the Region developed for 2010-2012.
Known as the "3rd Operational Program of the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Road Safety Program," the initiative's key strategic objective is to reduce road deaths by 50 percent by 2013. This strategic objective has been updated in accordance with the National Road Safety Program GAMBIT 2005.
The council feels a 50 percent reduction is a realistic target since earlier ambitious goals have already led to dramatic reductions in death and serious injury. "When the program was launched in 2004, it set out to reduce the number of road fatalities by 50 percent within 10 years," said Krzysztof Piskorz, coordinator of the Regional Road Safety Council. "After 6 years, the number of victims has decreased by 44-percent - three years before the end of the ten year goal." (Figure No.1).
In the Warmia-Mazury Region, the number of fatalities per 100 accidents in the period 2004-2006 amounted to 15.1, Piskorz noted, while in 2007-2009, the rate was 11.1. In the last three years, he added, the number of fatalities has consistently decreased. "Despite the still large number of collisions and injuries, the severity of accidents has been reduced," he added.
Built on local partnership
The partnership's efforts will continue to address a range of road safety challenges, including speeding (implicated in 35.8 percent of road incidents) and drinking and driving (which accounts for 12.6 percent of local crashes). The partnership will also target other factors, such as improving poor quality infrastructure, as well as key road user groups such as young drivers (involved in 24 percent of crashes), motorcyclists and moped drivers, pedestrians and children.
The new partnership effort evolved from a long history of multi-sector cooperation on road safety between local government and GRSP Poland, a multi-sector partnership of businesses, non-governmental groups, and a range of transport, education, health and agencies.
The capital of the Warmia-Masuria Region, Olsztyn, for example, was deeply involved with GRSP-Poland in a three-year campaign against drinking and driving that contributed to a 23-percent reduction in fatalities in the city between 2008 and 2009.
"This model of partnership cooperation in Olsztyn' s program Drink and Drive project proved to be extremely successful, with dramatic decreases of number of drunk drivers and fatalities in the city of Olsztyn and the Warmia and Mazury Region," said Pawel Widel, vice president of GRSP Poland. "Our idea to get together local government, businesses and non-governmental organizations produced a 22-percent decrease of number of drunk drivers just in a year.
"We were also surprised to hear that on January 15th, 2010, Warmia and Mazury Police reported zero drivers under alcohol influence - a situation never reported before," added Widel, who also servers as Director of Government Relations for General Motors, a business member of the GRSP Poland partnership. "We hope that this positive trend will continue, and we believe that this was main reason that local government invited GRSP Poland into a new 3-year road safety program for the Region.
"We will actively contribute to this comprehensive program with our Partners know-how and other support. We are glad that Warmia and Mazury region has a strong local leader to push the road safety high in the political agenda and GRSP Poland is proud to be part of this."
For Kathleen Elsig, the manager of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the Global Road Safety Partnership, based in Geneva, the partnership is a chance to build on the region's record of successful road safety teamwork.
"It's been a real privilege and a lot of fun working with the Warmia-Mazury Road Safety Council and community leaders and groups on drink-drive prevention over the past few years," said Elsig. "They are extremely motivated professionals, who are committed to preventing road crashes and injuries on their community's roads. I'm looking forward to working more closely with the region as part of their 2010 - 2012 action plan."
The Warmia-Mazury Partnership's commitment to the Program may also include other benefits in the form of a contribution of expertise, experience, best practices or contribution in kind, as well as administrative support and building of a Program-related coalition of the Partnership's members, including its foreign partners, in particular GRSP and the city of Goeteborg, Sweden.
"GRSP has a lot of experience in (road safety) and it is desirable that - after adjustment to local conditions - to benefit from these experiences," Piskorz said. "It is very important to create a system of cooperation in the long term."