Road Safety

Our roads are busy places that bustle with pedestrians, bicycles, cars, buses and trucks. And they are joined by ever more novel modes of transport because of new mobility concepts and technological advances. It is therefore all the more important that we are safe on the roads. The TÜV organisations are committed to preventing road accidents as best possible before they even happen. We check the technical safety of vehicles and whether drivers are familiar with the current traffic regulations. While a person’s fitness to drive can be called into question over the course of their life, the TÜV organisations help to dispel any doubts and to enable drivers to regain their driving licence.
In addition to driving safety, legislation reflecting the current situation and the best possible infrastructure form the foundation for the greatest possible safety on our roads. The TÜV Association actively supports transport policy with its extensive specialist expertise. We formulate sustainable concepts to make road traffic safer and are expressly committed to the ‘Vision Zero’ project – mobility without any traffic fatalities or serious injuries.

With its ‘Vision Zero’ strategy, the European Commission has set itself the goal of zero traffic fatalities by 2050. The German federal government also included this goal in its coalition agreement (2018–2021) and in its road safety programme (Verkehrssicherheitsprogramm) for the period from 2011 until 2020. Action is also needed with regard to serious injuries: with the Valletta Declaration, the European Council set the goal in 2017 of halving the number of serious injuries by 2030 (compared to the 2020 level).

Although road safety in Germany has continued to improve over the past decades, 2,719 people were still killed in road accidents in 2020. Around 327,500 people were injured. So there is still plenty of work to do to achieve ‘Vision Zero’. The health of all traffic participants is our top priority in this and we call upon transport policymakers to also make this a priority. As a member of the German Road Safety Council (Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat, DVR), the TÜV Association is actively involved in ensuring safety on German roads. We are also committed to improving road safety on the European level. Among others, we are a member of the umbrella organisation of European road safety organisations (European Transport Safety Council, ETSC) and have committed to the Road Safety Charter initiated by the European Commission.