You hear the news: "Four young people die in serious traffic accident. Due to excessive speed, a small car left the road on a left-hand bend on Saturday night. The vehicle rolled over several times before colliding with a tree at the side of the road. As a result of the impact, the car was completely severed at the height of the rear seat bench. The driver and two other occupants were thrown out of the vehicle. The front passenger was trapped. The young adults, aged between 19 and 24, died because they were driving too fast and were not wearing seat belts."
Germany's roads are characterized by a high density of commercial passenger and goods traffic as well as private transport. This results in correspondingly high overall accident figures with serious personal injury and property damage.
The road safety work of the North Rhine-Westphalia police includes preventive, repressive and public relations measures to promote compliant behavior and thus makes an important contribution to preventing serious traffic accidents. Road safety work thus serves to protect life and health as well as significant material assets.
However, not only the police, but also other governmental and non-governmental bodies, the business community, the media and citizens themselves are called upon to take responsibility and make their own contributions.
Road safety work is primarily aimed at target groups with an increased risk of road accidents, e.g. children, young adults and senior citizens. Through road safety education and road safety awareness, risks and personal responsibility in road traffic are made clear. Positive behavioral patterns and cooperative behavior are highlighted as exemplary.
Another focus of police road safety work is traffic monitoring. This includes all police activities in the traffic area: not only the observance of traffic regulations and the suitability of drivers are checked, but also the condition of all means of transport (from bicycles to trucks) as well as the comprehensibility of road guidance and traffic signs. Traffic monitoring is primarily geared towards accident trends and takes place in selected areas where dangers to the general public or specific target groups are greatest and where there is a particularly high risk of damage.
To this end, the police in NRW have expanded their specialist strategy for combating traffic accidents. In addition to the three main causes of accidents - excessive speed, alcohol and drugs at the wheel - another focus of traffic monitoring is distracted driving.
The police are very concerned about the increasing use of smartphones while driving. Even the distraction caused by a brief glance at the display poses a life-threatening risk.
A person who takes their eyes off the road for two seconds at 50 km/h to look at the display, for example, is driving almost 30 meters blind.
The police are therefore taking intensive action against the risky distraction caused by smartphones and imposing appropriate sanctions. This has far-reaching consequences for road users: If there is a suspicion that the driver was distracted by the cell phone in the event of an accident involving personal injury, the police will confiscate the cell phone and, at the request of the public prosecutor's office, evaluate whether there was a communication link at the time of the accident.
One area of focus continues to be violations of the obligation to wear a seat belt or child safety seat: this is because using a seat belt or child safety seat can prevent the most serious physical consequences of an accident.