Roads are all about communication. Successful road safety policies require a concerted effort across national and regional boundaries and between the EU and its neighbours. EASST works to promote cross-border dialogue and build projects which facilitate cooperation and understanding. Many of the charity’s target countries have frozen conflicts within their boundaries. Our projects – which also span these conflict areas - could be a powerful vehicle for conflict reduction and a vehicle for international cooperation.

Road safety is an issue directly related to governance. It touches on many areas of public policy, including police training, corruption, engaging communities in local planning, transparency in public contracts, education, youth policy, insurance coverage and other important themes.  It is a major concern for public health, with road traffic injuries now a leading cause of death in Eastern Europe (on a level with TB, and rapidly growing). It has a vital role to play in economic development, allowing the safe movement of people and vehicles required for investment, trade and tourism.

In countries of the former Soviet Union where EASST works, road deaths and injuries are having a profound impact. The WHO’s European Status Report on Road Safety in 2009 shows that all the countries in the European region with road fatality rates above the European average are located in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Baltics and the Balkans. Road casualties are a major concern for public health in the region, with road traffic injuries now a leading cause of death in Eastern Europe (on a level with TB, and rapidly growing). The World Bank, in their 2009 report “Confronting Death on Wheels: Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia,” points to the fact that road deaths are three times higher in these countries than in Western Europe, despite having smaller vehicle fleets.
 

EASST developed from collaboration between successful road safety organisations in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. We have grown to include campaigners in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine.

We work together to make local campaigns more effective by sharing know-how and resources. We cooperate in regional and cross-border projects, leveraging support and expertise from around the world.