ROADPOL Targeting Summer Travel

By Safe Holiday Operation

                           RVs and vehicle-caravan combinations will be among the targeted at controls. PHOTO: POLIZEI.RLP.DE21 JUN - ROADPOL Safe Holiday Operation will be carried out for another summer throughout Europe in the coming July and August.

The traditional operation is run under the auspices of ROADPOL member Guardia Civil with the Spanish law enforcement service responsible for shaping up the strategy and methodology of the planned synchronized inspections.

Risks

“During summer holidays, many European residents travel by car through the European roads usually in specific days in July and in August. It has been seen that at times these drivers and their families, use to drive long hours having little rest. This, together with the fact of the technical conditions of the car and that they take advantage of these displacements to carry with them all kind of personal belongings, both inside and outside the vehicle, which in many occasions are transported under no proper loading conditions,

may generate risky situations on the roads that could lead to serious crashes, in which can be engaged no just the particular involved drivers and family members but also other road users”, explains Tomás García Gazapo Guardia Civil Operations Brigadier General.

Tool

According to Mr. Gazapo ROADPOL Safe Holiday Operation will be a useful tool to increase the road safety in the roads of every country during summer on the occasion of these massive displacements. “This operation would be much more effective if it would spread through other European countries in a timely synchronized effort by every Traffic Police Force”, Mr. Gazapo says.

Brig. Gen. Tomás García GazapoActions

In its tactical proposal to ROADPOL Operations Working Group Guardia Civil lists media campaigns and delivery of brochures among involved drivers in order to inform them before the start their trips so that they can get the information and prepare the car and the journey properly. Among proposed enforcement actions are also speed controls, checking load conditions, vehicle security elements (seat belts and conditions of the tires) and vehicle weight and loading controls. “Setting up of information/enforcement roadside controls in specific places of the European main routes would increase the road safety in all the countries where these drivers travel through”, Mr. Gazapo also suggests. According to him these controls can be carried out by joint operational police teams in which Traffic Police Forces from neighbour countries work together in priority roads around border crossings. It is suggested that suitable days and places for such controls should be selected by direct contact between relevant neighbour Traffic Police Forces.