The problem

The monitoring and technical-administrative Service for the National Road Safety Plan was carried out by means of ongoing support to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, aimed at fostering the realisation of interventions for road safety improvement all over the national territory.

The National Road Safety Plan (Piano Nazionale della Sicurezza Stradale, PNSS) was established by Law No. 144 of 1999, with the aim of reducing the effects and number of road accidents. To achieve this goal, significant funding was made available with a view to realising roughly 1,600 road safety interventions. The PNSS clearly set down the need to adopt a “national monitoring system”. Regions, Provinces and Municipalities needed support and assistive technology in the implementation of interventions. It was essential to monitor the characteristics and contents of the interventions with respect to the context, their state of implementation and the results obtained, to aim at considerably reducing accidents over the whole country.

Our approach

The work was carried out in direct contact with the MIT and the group of firms winning the tenders in the five-year period of 2010-2015, with different courses of action:

• monitoring of PNSS interventions and implementation programmes;
• general and specialist road safety analyses;
• streamlining of the Road Safety Monitoring Centres;
• general support.

The monitoring of the interventions was complex and detailed. By means of direct contacts and visits over the entire national territory, an information database was created of the interventions funded with ministerial resources. In-depth studies and investigations were consistent, not only at international/European/national level, but also regional/provincial/local, on accident trends for different traffic components and road features, intervention assessments and improvement strategies. The regional representatives were followed and directed in the creation of Monitoring Centres. Training activities were carried out all over the national territory.

Other projects followed over the five-year period included:

• studies on safe driving courses;
• risk assessment activities of large company vehicle fleets;
• technical and legal support to the Div.4 of the Road Safety Executive Board.