ROAD SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN ROMANIA

Although Romania joined the European Union in 2007 and adhered to its regulations regarding road safety, until 2016 there was a lack and disparity in the legislation on this field. Romania was one of the fewest countries in EU without an assumed National Road Safety Strategy, and even though a National Law on Road Safety Audit was adopted in 2008, it was hardly applied. Thus, the results of the policy gap can be clearly noticed in road safety statistics. Romania is one of the worst performing countries in EU on road safety, but hopefully, after previous years actions, this will change. The end of 2015 brought Romania a new government, with an intermediary and non-politic status, a technocrat government with specialists from all fields of interests. One of the priorities of this executive was road safety, especially with the two main topics: National Road Safety Strategy, and its Action Plan (which were in a draft status since 2010 and were never adopted by the Romanian Government); Law no. 265/2008 on road infrastructure safety management, which regulates Road Safety Audits and Inspections (a law with many flaws, which needed to be corrected in order to be properly applied).