Germany's worrying road safety issue

RSSThe latest data from Germany's Federal Statistics Office, 5143 Destatis, reveals a worrying increase in road related fatalities in the first three quarters of 2011. The death rate on the country’s roads rose by 5.9% to 2,938 for the period in comparison with 2010. However, the overall number of road accidents reported by the German police dropped by 1.4% to 1.71 million. These are preliminary figures and final data has still to be made available but the news of the increasing death rate gives major cause for concern. The EC’s nations have managed to reduce the road accident death rate as part of an international policy on improving road safety, with France, Portugal and Spain scoring particular success in this regard. That the EC’s most populous nation should see a reversal of the overall improving safety trend will require further analysis to unveil the cause so that remedial action may be taken.

5534 Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development is promising to boost road safety however and aims to cut the number of road deaths by 40% by 2040. This is to be achieved with a new road safety programme that will entail flexible speed limits and more speed control. The Transport Ministry also wants additional rumble strips to be installed on highways. How the prospect of increased speed control will be regarded by the country’s automotive manufacturers and the vocal motoring lobby remains to be seen. Germany is the only country in the world to still have sections of high speed road (or autobahn) where drivers are permitted to drive as fast as they dare or their vehicles are capable (editor's note - while cruising at 200km/h on an autobahn on one occasion I was overtaken by a Ferrari probably travelling in excess of 240km/h). Suggestions by the country’s green politicians that this situation might be changed in the interests of saving the environment were shouted down by the motoring lobby. What is all the more remarkable is that despite the existence of sections of autobahn where there are no upper speed limits, the safety record on these highway stretches is still better than that of similar roads in many other developed nations.