o4: theoretical and practical basics for successful traffic safety work

traffic safety work is a goal common to all public authorities, police agencies and organizations in bavaria. reducing the number of traffic fatalities in a sustainable manner and continuing to lower the number of traffic accidents and road traffic injuries is a task for society as a whole. the various measures being implemented in bavaria during the road safety campaign “bayern mobil – sicher ans ziel, verkehrssicherheit 2020,” or translated into english “bavaria is mobile – arrive safely, road safety 2020,” take this task into consideration. the basics for successful traffic safety work can be found in linking together interventions from the fields of engineering, education and enforcement combined with appropriate activities in the field of public relations. these intervention fields are combined to form a single unit in the work done by the bavarian police. the formula for success is based on the fact that they influence each other greatly. knowledge gained from one intervention field has to be integrated into the decisions made concerning other intervention fields and must influence them. increasing road safety successfully is something that can be ensured only when the police cooperate with other organizations and partners in the area of road safety. the responsibility of the police goes beyond the classic task of providing safety and security. only by participating in traffic planning, cooperating with other authorities together in an accident commission, conducting targeted traffic surveillance and carrying out prevention work targeted at specific groups can the police contribute to improving road safety. there are a variety of ways in which the methods can be implemented. the police need to convey information on appropriate road behavior and in the process promote understanding and the willingness to participate in road traffic in a responsible manner. in this context, traffic surveillance and traffic checks need to be closely intertwined with each other. appropriate public relations work involving the acquisition and passing on of information and the transfer of knowledge serves to improve the feeling of safety of citizens. the accident commissions that have been established across bavaria are an important component of the governmental authorities in bavaria. they are composed of representatives from police agencies, road traffic authorities and road construction authorities. an accident commission is a committee of experts that carries out detailed analyses in road areas with a significant number of accidents. if necessary, the commission takes remedial action within its jurisdiction in order to lower the number of accidents at those locations. the central office for road safety of the department of road construction analyzes all traffic accidents in bavaria recorded by the police and uses that information to create digital accident maps. accident commissions are tasked with recognizing areas of the road system where a significant number of accidents occur, analyzing how the accidents occurred, adopting measures designed to increase safety and monitoring how they are implemented as well as subsequently assessing their effectiveness. in order to do so, the members of the commissions use their common basic knowledge and their specific expert knowledge from the three disciplines police, road construction and road traffic to carry out investigations at such dangerous places.