Road Safety in Greece

Our local road safety partner

We support road safety in Greece through our local partners Make Roads Safe Hellas (MRSH). MRSH was founded in Chania, Crete in 2010 as a supporter of the international Make Roads Safe campaign. Since then MRSH has been transformed into a scientific and social organisation that promotes road safety and sustainable development of the transport system in Greece and worldwide from a safe system perspective.  MRSH’s mission is:

– to study, document and promote targeted interventions for the reduction of traffic fatalities and injuries;

– to develop and disseminate scientific, technological knowledge and good practices in the field of road safety and sustainable development of transport;

– to raise awareness of the need to effectively address important challenges that the country faces in relation to road safety, with the support of the educational institutions as well as scientific and technical institutions, and civil society.

Between 2012-2014 Make Roads Safe Hellas led the highly successful transnational cooperation project for South East Europe to eliminate high-risk roads (SENSoR Project). The project included using EuroRAP protocols to survey 15,000km of the TEN-T road network across 14 countries in the region, highlighting road risk, and developing a series of ‘Safer Roads Investment Plans’ for the relevant public authorities.

MRSH are now focusing on the following areas:

1. Children’s road safety

MRSH are working to transform road safety education in Chania and Athens’ public schools. As of 2019, they provided road safety training to over 3000 schoolchildren using the EASST Road Safety Education Pack as well as providing information to parents and decision makers on the importance of keeping children safe as both vehicle passengers and pedestrians. In 2016, the Pack was voted by teachers in Chania as the number 1 initiative introduced in schools.

MRSH are also conducting a study into the use of child restraint systems (child car seats) in Greece. As well as looking at how often they are used, MRSH want to find out attitudes towards their use by parents and children, including expectations and buying patterns, with a view to increasing the use of child car seats in the country.

2. Corporate road safety management.

In partnership with the National Technical University of Athens, MRSH are developing an ambitious road safety management programme for private companies and public organisations. The programme includes the provision of EASST Academy’s “Road Safety at Work: Online course for Managers’ and using expert advice to set up and maintain an effective road safety management system for corporate fleets.

3. Improvement of driving ability and behaviour.

In cooperation with the Riding Academy MRSH are working to develop and provide post-licence training programmes to both novice and experienced riders in order to improve their driving abilities and behaviour.

4. Sustainable tourism and road safety.

After the publication of the first Country Report on Tourism and Road Safety in 2019, MRSH continue to monitor the country’s progress, to raise awareness, influence road safety public policy and promote active cooperation of all relevant stakeholders.