Success for Lucky 13's road safety adventures

PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 1.12.2009 - As the final episode of Lucky 13's road safety series is issued, the European Commission's gets ready for its conference on the upcoming 4th Road Safety Action Programme. A timely occurrence highlighting the link between campaigns dedicated to vulnerable road users and effective measures aimed at curbing road accidents.

Marking its willingness to play its role in contributing to reduce road accident casualties, ACEM, the European Motorcycle Industry, launched the Lucky 13 road safety campaign at the European Road Safety Day organised by the European Commission in 2008. Lucky 13 is a cartoon aimed at helping motorcycle and scooter riders avoiding the potential risks related to the infrastructure.

Risk perception and riders’ awareness about the potential risks coming from the roadway itself are at the core of this campaign, which was developed together with motorcycle instructors. Each issue focuses on a particular risk factor giving tips and recommendations to riders on how to best tackle different situations.

Accidents caused by the infrastructure account for 14% of the total according to MAIDS*. Poor conditions of many European roads and city streets and the fact that PTWs specific needs are still often neglected in road engineering are the main reasons for this situation. Rider behaviour in addressing each situation plays therefore a major role in PTW safety. By providing more information on the road environment, this safety campaign aimed at helping riders in making better choices and contribute to improve their own safety.


Hundreds of thousands of readers were reached by the campaign across Europe, out of which 63% declared to be very satisfied with the cartoon and welcomed a development of the series in the future. Lucky 13 owes its success to the support of ACEM members, European motorcycling magazines and, of course, the readers. Users' organisations such as FEMA and FIM also supported the dissemination of the campaign. The cartoon was translated in 11 languages (English, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Czech, Slovenian, Spanish and Portuguese) and disseminated in 13 European countries and it prooved to be a useful tool for the training of young or unexperienced riders.

The cartoon can be downloaded from www.acem.eu/cartoon in 11 European languages.

QUOTE:
Jacques Compagne, Secretary General of ACEM: Lucky 13's success shows that there is a real demand for evidence-based information conveying safety issues to targeted groups. As signatories of the European Road Safety Charter with two commitments, European Motorcycle Manufacturers praise this initiative as one of the pillars of the 3rd Road Safety Action Programme and invite the European Commission to build on this positive initiative.

ACEM, the Motorcycle Industry in Europe, is the professional body representing the interests and combined skills of 12 Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) manufacturers producing a total of 26 motorcycle, scooter and moped brands, and 15 national associations out of 13 European countries.

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