Works Sites the Danger Zone on Europe’s Roads

Publication date: 22 October 2007

In Ljubljana, Slovenia on Sunday, 26 August, seven people were killed in a roadworks zone collision. It is too often becoming a common occurrence across Europe.

During one late afternoon on the ring highway south of Ljubljana, in a roadworks zone section, the driver of a BMW lost control of his car carrying four other passengers. The car slid across the road into incoming traffic and hit an Audi occupied by two elderly persons.

Such was the intensity of the crash that no one survived. Of the seven lives lost some at least could have been spared had a crash-resistant lane-separating barrier been installed on the site.

The EuroTest Road Work Zones study has been calling for structural improvements to be made to roadworks zones for the last three years. Annual EuroTest inspec-tions on these zones attest to the higher than normal frequency of accidents in Europe.

Despite the progress made in other areas of road safety, roadworks zones remain particularly dangerous areas of the road.

Their temporary nature and lack of information about their presence, reduced lane widths, enforced speed reductions with very short lead time, the presence of men at work, and traffic congestion, are all factors that contribute to making these zones more hazardous than the open road. But steps can be taken to minimise the potential dangers.

The EuroTest 2007 study focused on 50 road work zones across eleven European countries: Germany, Austria, Italy, UK, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Spain, Croatia Denmark and Slovenia. All sites tested were long-term roadworks zones on main European highways. The shortest roadworks zone was one kilometre long, the longest around 20 kilometres.

As in the first inspection in 2005, the safest roadworks zone this year was found to be in Austria near Enns on the A1 (Linz - Vienna). Signs were provided to inform motorists about the reason for the length and duration of the roadworks. Flashing lights were also in place to warn motorists in advance. The speed limit was gradually reduced well ahead of the scheduled work. The only point of criticism was that the very good separation of the work area was interrupted for a short section.

For the second consecutive time the last place in this year's test went to Spain. The zone on CM42 (Madridejos – Toledo) near Toledo failed to receive even half the possible number of points. Although the zone was just four kilometres long there were numerous shortcomings including poor signage and lane markings as well as a dangerous separation of two-way traffic and the work area.

Moreover there was a distinct lack of lay-bys and the lanes were seriously reduced.

A comparison of country results reveals significant variations. The UK and Italy came out top while Slovenia flopped in last position. One special feature in the UK is that roadworks zones are often completely re-ordered at night, so that work can be intensified during low-traffic hours. This required special night-time-testing with a separate rating. But even in the dark, the UK roadworks zones received an average score of 90 per cent. This is also due to the good visual guidance ensured by reflective markings on lanes – as well as the unique feature of mounting warning lights on traffic cones to guide motorists in lane reduction and taper areas.

Looking at the EuroTest findings the tragic accident that occurred in Slovenia was not an arbitrary event. EuroTest inspectors found the general situation in Slovenia to be lacking. When approaching a road works zone there was no information either about the reason for, duration or the overall remaining length of the road work zone. There were no lay-bys and no information about speed enforcement measures. The entry and exit points to the road works were unsafe and original road markings were not removed and thus confusing to the motorist especially at night.

The gap in quality between the winners and the losers is too high to be acceptable. More must be done. The FIA believes that the European Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive is crucial to reduce the gap in safety between the newer and the older member states. Indeed the directive specifically highlights hazardousness of roadworks zones in need of attention. The entry into force of this directive expected to be adopted under the forthcoming Slovenian Presidency of the Council of Ministers should give especially new member states the necessary tools to upgrade their road network