Roadside infrastructure for safer European roads: D06 European best practice for roadside design: guidelines for roadside infrastructure on new and existing roads.

The relevance of single vehicle accidents (SVA) (also known as run-off-road – ROR or roadside accidents) as a traffic safety issue can be demonstrated in a review of European accident data. In 1998, 33.8 % of all fatalities in the European Union were the result of single vehicle collisions (Eurostat).The data collected on single vehicle accidents in the "Roadside Infrastructure for Safer European Roads" (RISER) project represented about 10 % of the total road accidents reported for the respective countries. If the data is restricted to comprise only fatal accidents, then 45 % of all fatal accidents are SVA. Worse yet, the cases collected in RISER do not represent 100 % of single vehicle accidents and indicate that even higher fatality figures may occur. The over-representation of SVA fatalities (10 % of accidents producing 45 % of all fatalities) cannot be ignored when developing road safety plans. The objective of the RISER project was to develop best practice guidelines that can be a foundation for national policy and guidelines. The project has synthesized the data and expertise from nine European countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The following information does not reflect one national practice for structuring the roadside area. The documents outlining the technical functions and requirements for roadside will need to reflect the conditions of the local road network. Climatic, geographical, and demographic characteristics for the road sections of interest must be developed by local authorities.