VGTU is for road safety in Lithuania

April 14, 2014
Vilniaus Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), represented by Vice-Rector Alfredas Laurinavičius, together with more than thirty other state institutions and public organisations, signed Memorandum on the road safety improvement, the traffic culture education, the accident reduction on Lithuanian roads.



"The Memorandum has been signed just before the road safety day. VGTU is always attentive to the road safety problems: research is performed at VGTU, studies are carried out, young people are invited to behave safely on the road, to take care both of themselves and others, so it was important to join this initiative, too. We believe that Lithuanian roads will become safer because of our common work," – said Vice-Rector A. Laurinavičius.



Two faculties are the main performers of the research on traffic safety in VGTU. The research on infrastructure and road traffic safety is performed as well as the intellectual transport systems are investigated at the Department of Roads of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Road Research Institute, Department of Urban Engineering, and Research Institute of Territorial Planning. The issues of vehicle safety are under constant examination at the Department of Vehicle Transport of the Faculty of Transport Engineering.



"A large number of scientific research for state institutions, municipalities or private companies is performed by the subdivisions of the university, such as preparation of territory planning documentation, ensuring traffic safety in the streets of a city, investigation of engineering traffic safety measures on the roads and streets, as well as organisation of traffic on city and suburban roads…", – told A. Laurinavičius.



Organisations and institutions, having signed the Memorandum, undertake the obligation to publicize it on their Web sites, to pay constant attention to the issues of traffic safety, to propagate traffic culture and responsibility and educate people in order to reduce the number of accidents on the roads of Lithuania. The signed party, according to its potentiality, strives for safe behaviour to become a norm on the roads and also commemorates safe traffic days.



Last year the number of dead people on the roads of Lithuania was the smallest during the last fifty four years. In comparison, in 1959 died 279 people, in 1991 – 1173 people, and in 2013 the number of the dead on the roads decreased to 258. As compared with the first years of Independent Lithuania, the number of dead people decreased almost four times.



According to those, who signed the Memorandum, the constant activities of different institutions, while implementing safe traffic measures and organising public education campaigns, produced good results. Though, compared with the statistics of other countries of the European Union, the number of dead people in Lithuania is still one of the biggest.



Rimantas Sinkevičius, the Minister of Transport, Dainius Pavalkis, the Minister of Education and Culture, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, the Minister of Healthcare, Stasys Dailydka, the Director of "Lithuanian Railways", heads of state road institutions, carriers, students, pupils, parents, cyclists, disabled people, representatives of different youth organisations signed the Memorandum.

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