Making international road transport safer in the Baltic Sea area
C.A.S.H. Project aims to make international road transport safer by reducing the number of heavy goods traffic related accidents in the Baltic Sea region.
The C.A.S.H. (Connecting Authorities for Safer Heavy Goods Traffic in the Baltic Sea Region) project enhances cooperation among road police units and transport inspectorates and respective units dealing with cross-border heavy goods traffic transport flows. Other key focus areas are safety issues of Dangerous Goods (DG) transport and harmonisation of training of respective authorities in line with EU directives.
C.A.S.H. project’s total funding is EUR 3.4 million which is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) through the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013. The project is coordinated by the Turku School of Economics (TSE) in Finland, as part of the multidisciplinary University of Turku.
– Over 560,000 million tonkilometer of goods are transported annually on the roads of the Baltic Sea region, including 5-10 % classified as Dangerous Goods. Although EU legislation on Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) and Dangerous Goods transport are widely harmonised at the European level, the implementation and interpretation of existing regulations as well as the operating procedures varies between countries, states TSE Project Coordinator Torsten Hoffmann.
The strategic objective of the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007–2013 is to strengthen the development towards a sustainable, competitive and territorially integrated Baltic Sea region by connecting potentials over the borders.
Cross-border cooperation
The partnership comprises 12 competent authorities in the Baltic Sea Region in road traffic safety, regional councils and research institutes. Road police units and transport inspectorates and respective units have a key role in the project. Research institutes focus especially on heavy goods traffic risk analysis and driver behaviour issues in close cooperation with law enforcement agencies.