Road Safety Seminar

The CEPOL Road Safety seminar, held in Münster, Germany from 23-25 March 2010, attracted 24 participants from 19 Member States.

The aim of the seminar was to improve the knowledge of traffic safety issues; provide European Best Practice examples; enable participants to recognise current developments and tackle future challenges, such as the effects of the demographic changes on road safety and applying the new European Traffic Safety Concepts in accordance with the implementation of a 4th European Road Safety Action Programme for the years 2010-2020.

The first day of the seminar was dedicated to the participants’ presentation of the current traffic safety situation in their respective countries and the future European road safety situation. There was a special focus on the view of the German Road Safety Board,presented by Jaqueline Lacroix, Head of the European and Special Issues Department of the DVR. Major Peter Szabó of the Hungarian Police provided an insight into newly implemented Speed Enforcement Technologies in Hungary.

During the second day, the emphasis was on the latest results of the EU Project DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines), presented by Cor F. Kuijten of the Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, KLPD.

Police Chief Inspector Jürgen Kanngießer of the Police of Lower Saxony, gave an insight into new neurological testing methods for drugs currently on trial in Lower Saxony. It also featured a Field Study visit to a Drug Traffic Control organised by the Osnabrück Metropolitan Police (Police Director Treusch von Buttlar) where the new testing methods were applied, resulting in the placement of charges against five persons violating the German Drug Act for possession and consumption of drugs in conjunction with DUI. On the third day, the results of the working group “Generation 65+” was presented by Police Director Martin Mönnighoff, DHPol. The working group focuses on possible problems related to older road users.

Police Director Georg Bartel of the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine Westphalia discussed the necessary target objectives for a future oriented European Road Safety Programme with the participants. All topics addressed in the seminar focussed on integral Traffic Safety Issues currently in discussion en route to the 4th European Road Safety Action Programme 2010-2020, including:

• Target objectives for a future-oriented European Road Safety Programme
• Drugs and Impaired Driving
• Generation 65+
• Countermeasures against speeding

Martin Mönnighoff, the Head of the Traffic Management Department at the German Police University in Münster, encouraged participants to make use of their CEPOL connections to exchange Best Practice. He said: ‘Such connections are important both for networking and for the development of common policing standards in trying to reduce traffic casualties throughout Europe.”

The seminar was organised by the German Police Universities Traffic Management Department in conjunction with Netherlands KLPD and the Hungarian Police who provided trainers and experts.