RADAR project lead partner Marko Ševrović Ph.D., from the European Institute of Road Assessment in Ljubljana (EIRA – EuroRAP), and Croatian project partner from Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, Sanja Leš LL.M., Project Manager at FPZ, were recently interviewed for Croatian Automobile Club and were published in HAK magazine.

This is their story. 

There were 4,077 people fatally injured in ten Danube area countries throughout 2017 alone. Putting that number in perspective, comparing it for example, with an epidemic outbreak and it will be clear how we underestimate that number only because our opinion regarding traffic accidents is biased by the idea that it is entirely drivers’ fault. Precisely this outdated way of thinking, which does not lead us towards saving those lives, is being tackled by the RADAR project seeking to increase awareness on all levels, from the general public to key decision-making stakeholders – states Marko Ševrović Ph.D.

Did you know that, throughout Europe, different traffic safety approaches exist, some traffic rules are even interpreted differently? Those are the discoveries, among others, brought to us by the RADAR project, whose goal is to influence the road traffic safety infrastructure in the Danube region (ten countries are involved in the project). The project, financed by the European Union with 2,15 million euro, started in June 2018, while the project finish date is in May 2021.

RADAR project (Risk Assessment on Danube Area Roads) is a three-year project under the transnational cooperation project – Interreg Danube, whose goal is the development of cooperation regarding traffic infrastructure safety level improvement in countries of the Danube region. Ten partners are involved in the project, with other 12 associated partners from 13 countries.

RADAR project is motivated by the lack of awareness regarding the problem of traffic infrastructure safety in the region, as well as the lack of insufficiently qualified professionals who are dealing with this problem. Based on data at our disposal for project purposes, in ten states of the Danube region, 4,077 persons were fatally injured throughout 2017 alone! Try to put that number in perspective, comparing it for example, with an epidemic outbreak and it will be clear how we underestimate that number only because our opinion regarding traffic accidents is biased by the idea that it is entirely drivers' fault. Precisely this outdated way of thinking, which does not lead us towards saving those lives, is being tackled by the RADAR project seeking to increase awareness on all levels, from general public to key decision-making stakeholders. We were interested in which phase RADAR project is.

RADAR traveled a lot last year, we conducted training to implement methods for traffic safety increase on roads in Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic. Training was conducted for engineers who work in the domain of road infrastructure, as well as for decision-making stakeholders in those countries.

Read more HERE. 

Read the original interview in the Croatian language HERE.