Report: European Road Safety Charter Seminar in Zagreb

The European Road Safety Charter workshop in Croatia took place on the 17^th of September 2019.The charter workshop was organized together with HAK (Croatian Autoclub), active member of the charter since 2008. The workshop was organized as part of the European Mobility Week, gathering Croatia’s road safety partners.

Opening and welcome words

The seminar was preceded by “KLIK”, an eduacational program for high shool students given by Mr.sc. Krešimir Viduka from the Croatian autoclub. After this, Dr.Sc. Igor Šiško, Deputy Secretary-General of the Croatian Autoclub (HAK) opened the workshop with a few welcome words. He highlighted the importance of cooperation between all Croatia’s road safety actors and presented the program of the day.  

Presentations

Mr.sc. Miron Huljak of the Interior Ministry presented the Road safety situation in Croatia, with the latest data regarding traffic accidents. Even if Croatia is not scoring the best, Mr. Huljak emphasized a decrease of road accidents and road fatalities. Huljak’s presentation was followed by a short overview of Hak’s survey on motorcyclist’s behavior, given by  Mr.sc. Krešimir Viduka.

The seminar continued with three presentation regarding Croatia’s road infrastructure problems:

• Marijan Jakovljević from Faculty of Traffic Sciences presented the results of the audit of the State road D102 on the island Krk. The audit, conducted according to the EuroRAP methodology, showed that only 10% of the road was rated as minimum acceptable (one or two stars). Three solutions, that would reduce the risk of accidents, where presented as conclusion of the presentation.
• Darko Brozović from the Croatian Automobile Club, presented the lack of rest areas for trucks along Croatia’s motorways.  This is a real problem as the part of heavy vehicles on Croatia’s motorways is very important.
• Sanja Corpse from the Faculty of Traffic Sciences presented the RADAR (Risk Assesment on Danube Area Roads) project. This Interreg-project aims to identify and reduces the risks of accidents in the Danube region countries.

Félix Vandemeulebroek of the European Road Safety Charter pointed out the importance of shared responsibility regarding road safety and the need of collaboration between European countries. The number of croatian members is quite low regarding other countries and an extra effort is needed to promote the charter acros the country. He finished his presentation with guidelines and tips in order to improve the efficiency of the road safety commitments end their actions.

After a presentation of Tin Viduka from the company Altpro D.O.O regarding innovative solutions for urban traffic, two associations presented their project in collaboration with other European countries. Ivan Nemet  from the cyclists union presented a project that aims to increase the safety of cyclists in two Croatian cities, while Italina Bencevic from RODA presented “Take a brake”, an educational project increasing the safety of children.