EuroTAP Brochure - EuroTest

“We must ensure that best practices
are spread throughout the whole Union.”
ari Vatanen, MeP
Nobody knows what it will cost to implement the
european tunnel Directive. in 2002, the european
Commission put the price at around six billion euros.
the fact is, as the eurotaP results show, that at least
a fifth of europe’s most important tunnels do not
provide a sufficient level of safety. Still, the Member
States must implement by 2014, in exceptional
cases by 2019. this is a huge task, not just in
financial terms.
in 2001, the european union set the target to
reduce by half the number of fatalities on europe’s
roads by 2010. Safer tunnels will contribute to this
goal. eurotaP has shown that more than half of the
tunnels tested have standards of safety that exceed
the level demanded by the eu. the european
Commission has proposed a new directive that seeks
to achieve uniform levels of safety across the entire
road infrastructure which is similar in its objectives
to the tunnel Directive. it goes without saying that
this will also call for safer vehicles and careful users.
in tunnels, safety also includes staff and emergency
teams. in italy’s San Martino tunnel, it took rescue
services a total of 45 minutes in September 2007
to reach the site of an accident. this delay cost two
people their lives and more than 100 people
suffered from smoke inhalation.