The conference started with an important declaration of Minister Kazimierz Smoliński who presented plans of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction concerning directions of transportation development in Poland. He said the Polish government’s goal was to move part of road traffic to railway and rivers. This is a way of using the capacity of Polish railways, where huge funds have been invested in the past years. The ministry would also like to recover the shipping potential of the Vistula and Odra rivers. The inspiration comes from the Netherlands where the transportation channels have proven to be a successful means of transport to carry lorries. This is an effective way to relieve roads and thus improve road safety.
Marina Wes, the World Bank Manager for Poland, Europe and Central Asia remarked that the improvement of road safety requires broad political and social coalitions. Kamil Wyszkowski, Director General of the UN Secretary General Initiative Global Compact Poland underlined that these days more people get killed in road accidents than as a result of armed conflicts and humanitarian crises altogether. Road safety is a global and a complex issue which ends in particularly gloomy figures in Poland. From 2006 to 2015, road accidents claimed the lives of nearly 42 thousand people, another 510 thousand were injured. The economic costs of road accidents in Poland are estimated at over PLN 28 billion per year. Although some improvement can be observed in the past decade, Poland is still lagging behind other EU member states in terms of road safety.
In the past years NIK has conducted a range of audits of road infrastructure, road traffic organisation as well as accident prevention and road safety education. In 2014, NIK submitted to the Polish Parliament a comprehensive report on road safety in Poland, with a number of findings and recommendations. Some of them have already been implemented, such as limiting the rights of city guards to use mobile speed cameras. Others are still in the implementation phase. The point is among others to strengthen coordination of road safety measures, merge the Road Transport Inspectorate with the Police, boost the Police activity (including improvement of police officers’ training). Some of NIK’s recommendations - such as to create a complex road safety management system and a road safety task financing system - are still pending.
During the conference NIK President Krzysztof Kwiatkowski presented the latest NIK report on the system of gathering and using road safety data. The audit results are not very optimistic. According to the NIK experts this system in Poland is in fact non-existent. The local and regional systems currently in place do not create a consistent whole that would enable road safety management at the national level.
The system of gathering and using road safety data is an absolute necessity. Without that it will not be possible to look into the sources of threats to traffic participants or evaluate effectiveness of road safety measures. NIK has already sent a number of findings and recommendations to all stakeholders. The NIK audit results were commented on the spot by insp. Jan Lach from the Police Headquarters who assured that the drawbacks highlighted by NIK would be corrected.
NIK President Krzysztof Kwiatkowski also quoted an important finding from the audit which is still going on in the General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways. The auditors pointed out issues in cooperation between the General Directorate and the National Fire Service in eliminating consequences of accidents. One of the issue is to point the body responsible for removing chemicals and operating fluids from damaged cars from the road. As a consequence drivers may be waiting several hours to pass on some parts of the roads.
According to the World Bank experts there are three key elements to road safety improvement:
- to appoint a single institution as the road safety leader and coordinator,
- to provide stable financing of road safety undertakings,
- to create and use the system for gathering road safety data.
The World Bank has operated in Poland since 2000 to improve road transport safety. The institution promotes system approach to solve that problem. Road safety is a universal issue. It needs cooperation and coordination of numerous institutions. The World Bank promotes a wide-ranging coalition of political circles, local governments, non-governmental organisations, academics and journalists. The so-called lead agency is needed to make sure this coalition operates properly. It is confirmed by the experience of the countries which have handled road safety much better than Poland. The World Bank suggests this agency should be validated by the law, have outstanding experts and be provided with stable financing. ”It seems that Poland needs a road safety law and the body responsible for road safety at the inter-ministerial level” - says Radosław Czapski, senior infrastructure specialist from the World Bank.
Kamil Wyszkowski from the UN Secretary General Initiative Global Compact Poland underlined the multi-aspect nature of road safety. He pointed among others to environmental effects of using motor vehicles and related lifestyle diseases which, in turn, translate into measurable burden for the state budget. That is why, Global Compact focuses on innovation, such as modern road marking and lighting, technicalities related to road construction or solutions related to cars as such. Many of those solutions are a bit more expensive in direct use but they generate savings in a longer perspective. ”3500 casualties on Polish roads stands for 20 full buses or all inhabitants of the Polish sea resort Łeba. Every year we lose 3,5 thousand citizens. I think we should stop and let it sink in: these are 3500 individual tragedies that we allow every year” - appealed Wyszkowski. This is the reason why in 2014 the UN Secretary General Initiative Global Compact Poland started the ”Safe Roads” programme. It has been scheduled until 2020. The GC experts want to make a permanent system change for the better. They are going to do it by analysing accident causes and add to the recommendations ready-made scenarios for the programme implementation copied from other countries.
Konrad Romik, Secretary of the National Road Safety Council admitted that the National Road Safety Improvement Programme needs urgent evaluation. Four years are left to complete actions planned as part of that project. ”We would like all people to join. It is open for everyone who wants to cooperate with us to pursue the goals set out in the National Programme for 2020” - said Romik.
The central point of the conference was the discussion panel where representatives of the Parliament, academics and business representatives took part. The debate concerned innovative road safety solutions. Bartłomiej Morzycki, representative of the Partnership for Road Safety highlighted huge benefits coming from the alliance between the public and private sectors. The latter has contributed a lot to road safety improvement. The private sector has also improved road safety standards by providing a broad educational policy for employees and their families, drivers’ work standards or proper equipment of company car fleet.
Halina Brdulak from the Institute of International Management and Marketing at the Warsaw School of Economics underscored the need for cooperation, joint responsibility and information exchange among all the parties interested in road safety improvement. She believes this is a complex, interdisciplinary issue. All road participants have impact on road safety. Their active approach and promotion of safe behaviours are very important. But it is the state that has a special role to play. It sets out legal conditions for the organisations and citizens. An increase of social awareness and transparency of actions on part of state authorities is an important element of building road safety and trust in the state which is still very low. Therefore, social campaigns should be run on a continuous basis. But this requires cooperation of various entities - including enterprises.
Bogdan Ślęk from Philips Lighting, company participating in the ”Safe Roads” programme quoted the data which show that as much as 85 percent of pedestrian strikes occur in the places where there are not enough road lights. A research by the company experts shows that the lighting of most pedestrian crossings in Poland is insufficient. It also happens that every other road light is switched off on some roads. This is a reprehensible practice adopted by some of the local governments to save money. This problem could be solved by changing the analogue lighting into digital lighting which offers more possibilities, both in terms of savings and road safety.
Piotr Sarnecki, President of the Polish Tyre Industry Association mentioned key principles of using car tyres: seasonal change of tyres, monthly tyre pressure control, tread depth control. In Poland even experienced fleet drivers find it difficult to observe those three rules at the same time.
The conference ended with a sum-up of recommendations coming from the reports presented to date. NIK will continue to cooperate with the World Bank and Global Compact Poland. The UN Secretary General Initiative is going to look into road safety issues in small towns and villages in the coming future. And this year NIK will present its reports on:
- safety of pedestrians and cyclists,
- functioning of rescue services on motorways and express roads,
- granting driving licence,
- motor vehicles' entry into service,
- traffic safety on railway crossings for pedestrians and vehicles.
The conference was attended by the representatives of all central bodies dealing with road safety, e.g. representatives of NIK, the Police, the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction, the World Bank, representatives of the UN Secretary General Initiative Global Compact Poland, the National Road Safety Council. Representatives of business and non-governmental organisations as well as associations dealing with road safety also joined the debate: Marian Bublewicz Foundation, Zielone Mazowsze (Green Mazovia) Association. ”Road and Safety” Association, Association for the Support of Victims of Car Crashes and Accidents, Kierowca.pl (Driver.pl) Association, "Car Accident Prevention" Foundation and Road Safety Partnership.
