engleski

Development of inland shipping as a safety element to reduce victims of the traffic accidents in Republic of Croatia

As a consequence of the large number of casualties in traffic accidents a high costs appear. These costs are estimated in the Republic of Croatia at approximately 2 % of GDP. The most of the traffic accidents occur on roads where, in Croatia, more than 600 people die annually. Simultaneosly, in the European Union the figure is 35000 people.According to statistical data young drivers aged between twenty and thirty years are most often victims of traffic accidents. In order to prevent the suffering caused by the traffic accidents it is necessary to pre-locate and identity potential jeopardy. In the European Union the annual cost incurred as a result of injuries in traffic accidents amounts to 160 billion Euros. The European Commission, therefore, points to the need to reduce external costs caused by traffic and suggests that the freight transport should focus on forms other than roads. Diverting traffic from the roads to inland shipping would reduce the percentage of traffic accidents and casualties. Inland shipping is transport sectors with the greatest development potential because of the safety features and the least negative impact on the environment. The comparative advantage of inland shipping is the fact that it occurs on the existing natural waterways that do not require construction, but only maintenance. To achieve safe inland shipping in Croatia, it is necessray to create conditions such as: construction and modernization of existing waterways, signification of dangerous spots, inland shipping fleet modernization, navigation signals planning, use of inland shipping IT network and international data exchange in oreder to establish full control over navigation. The development and usage of new technological solutions and intelligent transportation systems in the inland shipping would enable conditions for smooth and safe shipping in all weateher conditions without the limitations and bottlenecks with minimal risk of casualties in traffic accidents. Due to these features, inland shipping has become an essential aspect of the safest mode of transportation, linking the different transport sectors in the intermodal transportatio systems.

inland shipping; the reduction of external costs; reducing the number of casualties; safe navigation without the limitations and bottlenecks

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