The 13th PRI World Congress, held from 3 – 7 May 2017 in Tunis was hosted by the ATPR (Association Tunisienne de la Prévention Routière – Tunisian Road Safety Association) and chaired by Afif Frigui and Eng. Benaceur Boulaajoul, President of Prévention Routière Internationale (PRI – International Road Safety) on the occasion of the 55th birthday of the PRI.
This event took place in the framework of the global road safety decade of action 2011 – 2020 run by UNECE.
According to the UN Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 – 2020 and to the WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015. Each year nearly 1.3 million people die as a result of a road traffic collision— more than 3000 deaths each day – and more than half of these people are not travelling in a car.
An exhibition in a so called “road safety village”, took place on Avenue Bourghiba in Tunis to raise awareness among the public about the dangers encountered on the roads. The Congress itself took place at the Tunis Convention Centre. The centre and the village were both inaugurated on 3 May by Mr Youssef Chahed, Tunisian Prime Minister.
1500 people took part in the opening session on 3 May.
The congress itself (4 – 6 May) brought together 500 participants from 57 different countries from road safety organisations, rescue specialists, researchers, transport specialists, human factors experts, railway experts in level crossing safety….
Different sessions were dedicated to road safety management, post-crash response, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users.
Parallel panels were also organized, among others on level crossing safety.
UIC, represented by Isabelle Fonverne, member of the UNECE Working Party on road traffic safety, and member of the UNECE Group of Experts on level crossing safety had been requested to organise a panel on level crossing safety that took place on 4 May.
This panel on LC safety was chaired by Mrs Sarra Ben Rjeb, Managing Director, SNCFT who was represented by Mr Ali Fraj, General Director for inland transport at the Tunisian Ministry of Transport.
The four following speakers had the opportunity to give an overview of level crossing safety in their own country and presented hard and soft measures helping to reduce the number of collisions and casualties at level crossings.
- Mr Tamo Vahemets, CEO Operation Lifesaver Estonia: “Awareness and Education campaigns: actions to be taken”
- Mrs Sanja Paic, HZ Infra, Expert in promotional communications: “Proactive educational campaigns to change behavior of road users at level crossings”
- Mr Vincent Godeau, INFRABEL, Advisor in safety management: “Rail-Road interface plan: INFRABEL policy on railway crossing safety”
- Mr Abdellatif Cherni, Head of Department, SNCFT: “Overview of the level crossing safety on the Tunisian railway network”
For information SNCFT organised an awareness campaign to reduce accidents at level crossings from 27 – 30 April 2017 in collaboration with the Tunisian Road Safety Association (APTR). Awareness activities were carried out at the 28 most dangerous level crossings in the whole country. In 2016 74 accidents occurred causing 90 injuries and 33 fatalities. Among 1126 level crossings in Tunisia, only 24% of them (267 LC) are equipped with barriers. According to statistics 2011-2016 55% of all accidents at LC happened at LCs with barriers where the traffic is high:
http://africanmanager.com/mots-cles/sncft/
Finally Isabelle Fonverne who organised this panel in collaboration with the Tunisian Prévention Routière Internationale (PRI) gave an overview on level crossing activities on a global level, and the cooperation of UIC with other international institutions, organisations to improve safety at level crossings:
- Safety guidelines for professional drivers (taxi, bus/coaches and trucks) with the International Union of Road Transport (IRU) http://www.ilcad.org/LC-Safety-Tips.html
- The Group of Experts on level crossing safety at the UNECE and final report to be released.
Isabelle Fonverne finally reported on ILCAD www.ilcad.org taking place worldwide, and the international conference to launch the 9th edition on 2 June 2017 in Montreal.
The Railway Association of Canada (RAC) and the International Union of Railways (UIC), are pleased to be co-hosting the 9th International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) on 2 June 2017, in Montreal, Canada.
Participation in this conference is free of charge. Simultaneous interpretation in French and English will be provided.
For more information http://www.ilcad.org/ILCAD-2017,399.html
To register please click here:
http://events.uic.org/registration-to-ilcad-international-conference-2017?id_formulaire=73
To consult the draft programme please click here:
http://uic.org/com/IMG/pdf/draft_09052017_programme_ilcad_conf_2_june_2017.pdf
