EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania, Security, Transport

Oscar de Buen Richkarday and Rimantas Sinkevicius. Photo: transp.lt

The PIARC president praised Lithuania's progress in reducing the number of road fatalities. According to him, the number of road fatalities in Lithuania has fallen by nearly three times since 2007, which is a significant achievement. Thus it is purposeful to discuss Lithuania's experience in the newly prepared PIARC road safety guidelines.

Oscar de Buen Richkarday said that Lithuania's experience in improving road safety is a success story from which other countries could benefit.

Previous guidelines were mostly focused on technical infrastructure solutions and were essentially based on the experience of Great Britain and Germany. Meanwhile the latest version of guidelines should also include such aspects as healthcare, education and reflect the experience of countries that made the biggest progress.

Lithuania's transport and communications minister said that in a couple of decades Lithuania's roads experienced major changes – traffic has increased, as has the number of vehicles and the load on roads. According to Sinkevicius, all this poses quite a challenge seeking to ensure quality road infrastructure and solve road safety problems. He said that today's results were achieved thanks to the efforts of professionals and international know-how.

The PIARC president invited the minister to participate in the 25th World Road Congress that will take place in Seoul, South Korea, from 2 to 6 November. Lithuania has been PIARC member since 1994.