“Drive safely”

ELIT Language Services covered the interpreting needs of the international Conference on drink-driving which was held on Thursday, 21 June at the Representation of the European Commission in Greece. The Conference was held within the context of the project SMART (Sober Mobility Across Road Transport) by the Institute for Road Safety “Panos Mylonas” and the European Transport Security Council (ETSC), with the considerate support of the Representation of the European Commission in Greece.

The purpose of the Conference was to provide an updated picture of the situation in Greece with respect to drink-driving, as well as on good practices in other European countries aimed at reducing the number of fatalities in road accidents related to alcohol.

Officials from entities and organisations such as the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the Traffic Police, the National Council for Road Safety as well as the academic community graced the Conference with their attendances, who all fight for the common goal of eradicating the phenomenon of drink-driving and preventing and reducing road accidents in Greece.

In his opening speech, the Executive Director of the ETSC, Antonio Avenoso, noted that 25% of road accident fatalities in Europe are related to drink-driving (6,400 persons according to data from 2016), while alcohol represents the main cause of fatalities in road accidents for ages 16-25 years. Mr Avenoso also presented the latest disappointing data on road safety in Europe, noting that the goal of reducing road accident fatalities by 50%, by 2020, now seems all but impossible to achieve.