Road Safety was the subject of a seminar held in Münster, Germany on 08 –11 March 2011. The aims of the seminar were to improve the participant’s knowledge on traffic safety issues and European Best Practice examples, with a specific focus on “Powered Two Wheelers”. Specialised Accident Investigation and new developments in the field of Driver Assistance Systems were topics also included in the 4 day event.
Twenty-one participants from 15 EU countries and lecturers from Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands took part in the seminar.
The seminar started with a welcome by Mr Klaus Neidhardt, president of the German Police University, and an introduction into the programme by Chief Superintendent Martin Mönnighoff, Head of the Traffic Management Department and Superintendent Dr. Thomas Bastian. Following a round of presentations by the participants illustrating corresponding functions and good practice in the field of Road Safety in their respective Member States, Thomas Tietz, Baden-Württemberg police, gave an insight into the strategies implemented in the federal state to tackle accidents with Powered Two Wheelers. Major Peter Szabó, Hungarian Police, presented the newly introduced Accident Scene Positioning and Data Recording System used in Hungary.
Day two put an emphasis on accident investigation, starting with a lecture by Dutch expert Albertus Nieuwenhuis of the Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, KLPD, focussing on specialised motorcycle accident analysis. Björn Ekhoff, Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine Westphalia, subsequently discussed Digital Traces stored by various internal control systems in advanced modern vehicles and their value for scientific accident analysis. That afternoon the participants had the possibility to get a glimpse at what the future holds in the field of driver assistance systems. Dr. Jörg Breuer and his team from the Daimler Corporation presented the latest developments in this field and gave the participants the opportunity to experience lane assistance systems, dynamic cornering lights, blind spot and breaking assistant in a first hand driving demonstration on the test facilities of the North Rhine Westphalia police.
A field study visit to the Police Headquarters in Cologne and their specialised accident investigation team was organised for day three of the seminar. Assistant Chief Constable Helmut Simon and his team gave an insight into their work and current cases. The participants had the possibility to observe and discuss equipment used and expertise gained first hand with their German counterparts.
During the seminar’s closing session Martin Mönnighoff, Head of the Traffic Management Department at the German Police University, encouraged participants to make use of their CEPOL connections as an interdisciplinary platform for networking and exchanging examples of good practice. He stressed the importance and function of police networking and the development of common policing standards, in the process of reducing traffic casualties across Europe. With this in mind it is also relevant to mention, that the organisers made use of CEPOL´s e-Net to provide participants with pre-course material and the possibility of coordinating their expectations. Efforts were put into encouraging participants to provide information from their respective countries to feed a Road Safety Section within e-Net´s LMS Police Knowledge Bases containing for example prevention material for traffic safety campaigns.
The seminar was organised by the German Police Universities Traffic Management Department in conjunction with Netherlands KLPD and the Hungarian Police.
