Germany’s road network is becoming both increasingly dense and increasingly busy. Many road users travel for business reasons (e.g. commuters and professional drivers) or are on their way to a children’s daycare facility, school or university. As soon as they take to the road they are at risk of becoming involved in a road traffic accident. Often accompanied by serious consequences, road traffic accidents are an area of increasing public interest. According to official road traffic accident statistics, 4,467 people died and 397,448 were injured on Germany’s roads in 2008.
Prevention is the primary objective in this field. The German social accident insurance institutions for trade and industry and the public sector have a statutory mandate to ensure that not only accidents in the workplace and in schools, but also accidents involving road users who are working or commuting are prevented. They have therefore long promoted road safety on public roads, with accident prevention regulations published with the aim of protecting employees. They are also placing increasing emphasis on sensitization and training, for example in the form of prevention campaigns or road safety training for companies. In the case of schools and children’s daycare facilities, this involves providing tangible examples for use in lessons, delivering programmes of qualification (e.g. within the framework of initial and further teacher training) and publishing information for head teachers, parents and other key stakeholders.
Cooperating partners: BGen, UK and DVR, DVW
The German social accident insurance institutions have worked closely with the German Road Safety Council (DVR) for over 30 years. They regularly carry out joint prevention campaigns also involving other partners.
In the field of safety on the school run in particular, the German social accident insurance institutions also cooperate closely with the German Road Safety Organization (DVW) and road safety organizations responsible for specific federal states.
Who is responsible for which element of German road safety?
An overview of the road safety programmes offered to the public around Germany is available from the website for German road safety programmes, which also provides contact details for the respective programmes, locations where programmes are offered, downloads and links to sites of interest.
Campaigns and Activities