On 15 May 2019, the 2nd International Forum on Road Safety and Innovation on the topic - New Technologies and Good European Practices was held in Sofia. The event was attended by more than three hundred delegates, including representatives of EuroRAP and RADAR project, as well as representatives of the International Road Federation (IRF), representatives of the Bulgarian authorities, representatives of the European Commission, representatives of the EIB (European Investment Bank) and the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). The lecturers of the event were eighteen prominent road safety specialists from Europe, the United States, Australia and Bulgaria, and they shared with the audience how to use and deploy new technologies in the fight to reduce road deaths and improve road safety around the world and Europe.

In the spirit of bringing together the European community to assess the state of the road infrastructure, exchange and share experiences, results and ideas for continuing work on traffic safety in Europe, as well as strengthening cooperation between stakeholders in transport in Europe, Marko Ševrović, European Institute of Road Assessment – EuroRAP (EIRA), also presented the RADAR project to all the participants and called to action the Bulgarian road safety authorities to make a change and reduce the number of fatalities and road crashes in Bulgaria, as well as in other countries across Europe. In that respect -and within the aim of the Forum-, RADAR project will deploy Road Safety Infrastructure training courses in Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Austria, and the Czech Republic in the period from March to November 2019.

Road Infrastructure Safety training courses will not only analyse the road safety data that highlights the scale of the problem of road trauma in the region but will also train local experts on how to perform road surveys and perform road safety analysis in ViDA software. 

STATISTICS   6,800 people were injured in road crashes in Bulgaria in 2017 while there were 682 road-related fatalities in the same period. Even though the country is seeing notable and positive changes in its latest road safety statistics, Bulgaria still has the second highest rate of road fatalities/head of population of any country in the European Union.

Road Safety & Innovation - Leveraging new technologies and good practices from Europe and beyond” is an international forum for road safety & technology stakeholders held in partnership with EuroRAP under the patronage the Ministry of Regional Development & Public Works, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communication, the Road Infrastructure Agency (API) and the State Agency for Road Safety.

Beside Ševrović, other invited speakers at the conference were Ferry Smith – President of EuroRAP, Michael Dreznes – IRF Executive Vice President and Philip Troopman – European Commission. The event was also attended by the Executive Director of the Chamber of Builders in Bulgaria Eng. Miroslav Maznev. They, as well as other well-established international experts,  presented successful worldwide experience as well as innovative technologies and possible solutions to improve road safety and reduce the number of road deaths.

The Forum is an international experience-sharing platform that is also fully aligned with ongoing European policy initiatives in the fields of road infrastructure safety management and the digital economy. As an emerging technological hub with a unique ecosystem of SMEs, Bulgaria offers an ideal setting for forward-looking discussions between industry and governments on innovative pathways to safer road mobility.

More about the 2nd International Forum of Road Safety and Innovation here.