MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT
European Road Safety Charter
good practice

Good practice submission

Estonian Road Administration

Good practice submission

What problem did you address/are you addressing? 
There were 1,459 traffic accidents with human victims in Estonia in 2016, in which 71 people were killed and 1,821 injured. The number of accidents, deaths, and injured persons has not changed significantly since 2010. Engaging in traffic has become too self-evident to Estonian road users and they fail to apprehend surrounding dangers. Among its communication activities, the Road Administration holds large prevention campaigns every year, which demonstrate correct traffic behaviour. Moreover, daily prevention work is carried out throughout Estonia among children as well as adults. However, Estonians still do not understand that even though there are several factors contributing to the serious consequences of each specific traffic accident, the primary responsibility lies on the road user. In view of accident prevention, it is important that road users understand the significance of traffic rules and that they act in a responsible and considerate manner towards other road users.
What are your objectives? 
make the attitudes and behaviour of adult road users safer
explain and remind the reasons behind safe traffic behaviour
explain to people why and how traffic accidents happen
explain and justify the essence of traffic rules and how they benefit road users
supporting road users in coming to terms with unfamiliar and inconvenient yet safe solutions
Describe the characteristics of your target audience 
The target audience of the programme were adult road users in Estonia.
How many people did you reach/have you reached? 
1000-5000
List the actions you carried/are carrying out 
Date 
Wednesday, 1 March, 2017 to Friday, 1 September, 2017
Name of action 

Development of the ‘Red Second’ traffic programme format
The Road Administration is coordinating the work of an expert committee in determining the causes behind serious traffic accidents in Estonia. This expert committee investigates traffic accidents, which involved a death or five or more injured persons, in order to find out why a specific traffic accident occurred. The committee investigates accidents simultaneously with the police and its aim is to discover more nuances than are included in the traffic accident records of the police. The committee consists of, for example, police officers, specialists in the fields of roads and motor vehicles and psychologists. Thus, we decided to create a television programme to illustrate why accidents happen and how to act in order to avoid those. We thought it would be a great chance to use the materials of the expert committee on traffic accidents in order to demonstrate what is happening in traffic. We worked with the television production company Paprika Latinos OÜ in order to transform the existing specific know-how into watchable TV content and they developed a broadcast format that could describe traffic accidents in an interesting manner without the need for speeding cars, blood and tears.

Date 
Friday, 1 September, 2017 to Thursday, 23 November, 2017
Name of action 

Production and broadcasting of the first season of traffic programme ‘Red Second’
The first season of ‘Red Second’, consisting of 10 episodes, aired on ETV between 21 September and 23 November 2017.  ETV, which aired the programme, is the most popular television station in Estonia and watched by... people. The programme was made on the basis of real serious traffic accidents and their causes. Traffic Safety Department and Prevention Department of the Road Administration selected the most important risk factors that cause traffic accidents in Estonia and found real-life traffic accidents to illustrate those factors. Each 28-minute episode showed Estonian leading experts in traffic safety from the public as well as the private sector analyse two accidents. In addition to this, the host also carried out a test experiment in cooperation with representatives of a driving school in order to illustrate the significance of the topic. The programme covered keeping sufficient distance, speeding, correct use of safety equipment, risk behaviour, overtaking and the dangers of engaging in extraneous activities while driving. The role of slippery roads and prohibited manoeuvres in occurrence of traffic accidents was analysed as well.
Episodes in Estonian are available here: https://etv.err.ee/search3#?to=&from=&phrase=%22Punane%20sekund%22&categ... 

Date 
Monday, 30 April, 2018 to Thursday, 31 October, 2019
Name of action 

Production and broadcasting of the second and third season of traffic programme ‘Red Second’
Since the programme was popular and there were plenty of viewers, we intend to continue with it in 2018 and 2019 as well. The episodes will consist of similar or even the same topics but will be illustrated by new traffic accidents. We believe that if a certain message is described through various examples, it will eventually sink in with people.

How did you disseminate/are you disseminating results or how did you promote/are you promoting your initiative? 
“Red Second” programme was broadcasted during prime time on the most popular television station in Estonia. It was repeated during weekends when also a lot of people watch television. Moreover, the independent Estonian technology and traffic portal www.accelerista.com offered media support to ‘Red Second’ during its first season. Exciting topics were discussed on the basis of the programme every week in cooperation with the Road Administration and the production team. Many difficult issues were thoroughly explained and clarified. Accelerista created an independent page for the programme which included all of the most important traffic topics.
How did you evaluate/are you evaluating the success of your action? 
We are monitoring the viewing figures of ‘Red Second’. The viewing figures of the programme were constantly among TOP 15. The number of viewers was around 60,000-82,000 viewers across different episodes. We consider it a great result because we managed to create an explanatory and educational programme in cooperation with the production company. In this time of information overload, viewers are used to being entertained and it is thus quite a challenge to get them to watch a programme where it is necessary to think along.
Who carried/carries out the evaluation activities? 
External evaluation
When did/will you carry out the evaluation? 
Before, after and continuous monitoring
Please list the indicators you use to measure success 
monitoring the viewing figures