Vote on landmark road safety ruling

(JB) The number of people dying on Luxembourg's roads is in decline, with the Grand Duchy achieving the highest reduction in road deaths in the EU.

The news comes ahead of a European Commission vote on a raft of cross-border road safety measures, aimed at further reducing road deaths.

According to a press release from the European Commission, speeding, failing to stop at traffic lights, not wearing seatbelts and drink driving are the four biggest killers on Europe's roads.

The situation has seen some improvement, however. Luxembourg recorded a 33% drop in road deaths in the last year. Over a ten-year period road fatalities were down from 159 deaths per million inhabitants in 2001 to 64 in 2010, placing it as the best pupil for road death reduction ahead of Malta (29% reduction), Sweden and Slovakia (both with a 26% reduction).

However, the figures remain high with the prize for least safe country awarded to Greece, which recorded 116 deaths per million inhabitants in 2010.

On Wednesday the European Commission will vote on a package of road safety measures which will enable EU drivers to be identified and prosecuted for offences committed in member states other than the one where their car is registered.

The new rules would give member states access to each others' vehicle registration data via an electronic date exchange network.

According to the directive details, once a suspected offender's name and address are known, they will receive a letter. It will be up to the prosecuting member state (where the alleged offence was committed) to follow up on the offence.

The directive does not call for a harmonising of the nature of the offence or the appropriate penalties to be issued. Both should be decided by the country in which the offence was committed.