PRESS RELEASE
FIAB (Federazione Italiana Amici della Bicicletta)

More victims in the war waged on our roads

A cardriver, running at full speed, during an overtaking on a state road in Calabria, hit head on a group of cyclists taking a ride together. It's was a massacre: seven cyclists died on the spot and three others are in hospital, seriously injured.

If the concept of "accident" may infer in its definition a certain degree of fatality and inevitability, it's important to stress that this is not an appropriate description of many of the harmful events that take place on the Italian roads, which are – it's worth reminding – among the less safe and less presided in Europe.

Behaviours such as those that have caused today's tragedy denote a criminal behaviour by someone, who, as it was the case today, armed with the vehicle he is driving, doesn't respect or observe any rule on the road. At all costs and often withouth being punished.

Protected and isolated in the interior of vehicles which are more and more sophisticated, one undergoes a real psychic transformation which cancels also the meaning and the fear of death.

The cardriver who is responsible for today's massacre, judging from the first news disclosed by the press, had been disqualified from driving only a few months ago because of a risky overtaking. Despite this, he took the helm of his car and,, moreover, had apparently positive results to an anti-drug test. Furthermore, he didn't hesitate to travel with a girl on board.

If it is said that a vehicle with an engine is a potential weapon and the the license is the equivalent of a firearms license, one has also to be consequential. Otherwise one starts from correct premises to arrive at wrong conclusions.

In our opinion the Lamezia Terme massacre corresponds to a multiple homicide, that cannot fall into the category of guilt, that is in the simple failure to comply with the law and the rules, but in that of fraud, that is of the voluntariness, even if only in the form of "possible fraud" known in the the doctrine and in jurisprudence.

The EU fixed the very ambitious objective to halve road accidents by 50% in 2010.

Recently, according to some data published by ACI-ISTAT 2009, there has been a general drop in the toll of road victims. If, on the other hand, we analyse the figures, the mortality rate only refers to cardrivers, and to a much lesser degree to motobikers, while the figures for cyclists and pedestrians remains stable.

If we analyse this figure further and we compare it to the death toll in the cities, we notice that one out of two victims is a pedestrian or a cyclist.
If we count bikers in the group of weak users of the road the figure shows that 83% of road victims are among them.

It's therefore clear that withouth a strong intervention in this fundamental segment of mobility there is no serious road safety policy.

In expressing its condolences to the families of the victims, FIAB demands that road safety be finally put among the priorities of the political agenda both on the national and the local level.

For further information on data and statistics please see the brief study by Edoardo Galatola, responsible for safety at FIAB: Study by Edoardo Galatola, FIAB Safety Responsible