The debriefing meeting of the “International Level Crossing Awareness Day” (ILCAD) task force took place on 23 September in Brussels. The objectives of the meeting were to take stock of the 45 national awareness campaigns and measures taken on 22 June, to assess collective and individual results, to share information to improve future projects regarding safety and education at level crossings and to plan new projects for the 2011 International Level Crossing Awareness Day.
The meeting was chaired by Isabelle Fonverne, the ILCAD Project Coordinator from UIC who announced two new partners: “RSE Rhein-Sieg-Eisenbahn” (private German rail company) and “Urban Light Rail System” in Guadalajara (Mexico) and gave a general overview of campaign, presenting all the common projects and information.
Vicky Smith from Network Rail (UK), Getter Toome and Tamo Vahemets from Operation Lifesaver Estonia, Sandra Pansini from FS (Italy), Katarzyna Kucharek from PKP (Poland), Petra Sivackova and Martina Pavlikova from ZSR (Slovakia), Susana Abrantes from REFER (Portugal), and Tanja Cvorovic and Biljana Gordic from ZS (Serbia) each gave an overview of their national campaign and an evaluation of its effectiveness, focusing on targeted groups, partners involved and costs.
The 2010 campaign involved the road sector, governmental agencies, railway undertakings, railway infrastructure managers, police forces, and non-profit organisations dealing with railway safety education from over 45 countries, as well as European and International rail organisations (CER, EIM and UIC), the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, the European Railway Agency (ERA), the UN-ECE Transport Division, Operation Lifesaver, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF). The Latin American Railway Association (ALAF) and the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) also joined the Campaign.
Jean-Paul Repussard, of the Road Safety Unit of Directorate General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, reported on the DG MOVE’s press conference that took place at the European Commission Headquarters (see e-News No. 193) and the impact of the video clip “Just in time” aimed at the public, particularly road users and pedestrians all over the world. The European Commission financed the making of the clip and it was made available free of charge to all ILCAD partners. All partners put the clip on their website and adapted it by integrating the official motto “Act safely at level crossings” in their own language to complement the national activities in participating countries. The video clip has also been shown on screens in railway stations and schools, and at press conferences and staff assemblies in companies etc. It can still be watched on the EC website: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/index_en.htm or on the ILCAD website: www.ilcad.org.
Liesbeth de Jong, of the UIC Communications Department, gave an overview of the media impact and success of the event in Europe and beyond. A “press book” summarising the media impact and including more than 500 articles is nearly finalised.
Isabelle Fonverne sincerely thanked the individuals from all the organisations and countries involved who have spent so much energy and made such an effort to make ILCAD 2010 a great success. The new day date for the International Level Crossing Awareness Day 2011 be set and communicated soon.
You can find more information on all the projects undertaken, press articles and other published documents, country by country on www.ilcad.org.
Important dates to come for level crossing activities
– UIC participates in the 60th session of the UN-ECE WP1 on road traffic safety (27-29 September 2010) in Geneva
– 11th Level crossing symposium in Tokyo from 26-29 October 2010
– 2nd EU workshop on level crossing safety in Tallinn, Estonia on 15 March 2011 & Operation Lifesaver Estonia’s educational railway safety conference “Let’s Save Lives” in Tallinn, Estonia on 16 March 2011
– ELCF annual plenary meeting (ELCF members only) on 17 March 2011
– The date of the 2nd International Level Crossing Awareness Day will be communicated soon!
