ACTION PLAN FOR EUROPE

A single European performance-based standard is being developed to cover road restraint systems (defined as safety barriers, transitions, terminal and crash cushions). Although most of the standard has been ratified by the European Standardization Committee and should be referred to in national tenders, most tenders still refer to national models instead. The European Road Federation has developed a four-point program to help ensure that that Europe's harmonization framework leads to safer roads for motorists and a single market for the road equipment industry. The four-point action plan can be summarized as: (1) investment programs in road restraint systems must be the result of a long-term road infrastructure safety improvement strategy which recognizes that safety barriers are a cost-effective way of saving lives; (2) safe containment of vehicles and their passengers based on solid scientific evidence should be the overriding concern when defining minimum performance requirements applicable to road restraint systems; (3) European standards need to be completed with operational deployment guidelines which take into account the nature of the hazard and the corresponding type of safety barrier that is required; and (4) national awarding authorities must receive detailed procedures on the application of the performance standard to their road network, and, in turn, Europe's member states must formally undertake to upgrade their remaining non-complying barriers as soon as possible.