The Spanish Confederation of Transport by Bus, CONFEBUS, together with E-RESCUE, celebrated the 1st Conference on Bus Safety. The meeting, which took place at the CEOE headquarters, brought together a hundred professionals, including spokespersons for the Traffic Directorate, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Development, the Association of Rescue Professionals in Traffic Accidents ( APRAT), the Emergency Medical Service of Madrid (SUMMA 112) and the Association for the Study of Spinal Cord Injury (AESLEME).
According to the forecasts of the DGT, During this month of July around 43 million trips will be registered. Of these, more than 7.5 million will be made by bus, the safest mode of road transport: in 2017, 0.2% of the total fatalities of road traffic accidents were attributed to the bus. Therefore, its use helps decisively to reduce the loss of both human lives and costs in terms of healthcare and disability due to traffic accidents. Regarding the private vehicle, the bus is 20 times safer.
The president of the Confederation, Rafael Barbadillo, inaugurated the day, which exposed the latest advances in security systems and the main keys to reduce road accidents. "In the sector we make great efforts to tend to zero victims. Proof of this are the € 500 million that are invested each year in renewing the fleets in order to incorporate new security systems. Or the more than € 6 million that are invested in training the driving professionals to handle such innovations. " However, he also recalled that the infrastructure plays a very important role in the prevention of accidents on the road: "Although it has improved a lot in the last decades, it requires maintenance. We have to invest in our road heritage. "
The closure was the responsibility of the general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, who recognized the work of the bus sector in terms of safety: "You have made road safety an 'obsession', which is contrasted with the results," he said. The director of the DGT also stated that "the sector is already far ahead of the Administration itself" In this regard, he referred to the different measures that have been promoted and promoted in terms of security from CONFEBUS.
The celebration of this day shows that innovation in safety is a priority for the bus sector, which makes a special emphasis on prevention. And, although it is the safest mode of land transport, the efforts of CONFEBUS are always aimed at Zero Vision, that is, to achieve a Spanish transport system without fatalities or serious injuries. To this end, the Confederation has publicly requested several measures: 1) Alcolocks must be installed compulsorily on buses registered after a certain date; 2) That companies be informed of the balance of points of professional drivers; 3) That they be allowed to perform random checks of drugs and alcohol; 4) That periodic medical checks are carried out on drivers, as they are done in the railway and aviation sectors; 5) As well as zero tolerance in the rate of alcohol for bus drivers. "The sector is on the right track in terms of safety, but we are still working to reduce accidents to zero," said Rafael Barbadillo.