FLEETS have been urged to play their part in a massive drive to cut accidents across Europe and save 25,000 lives a year by 2010.

Any company in which staff have to travel on business should be part of the commitment to drastically change the face of road safety across the Continent, delegates at the Fleet News Europe Conference in Brussels heard. The move came as latest figures showed that 41,000 people died on Europe’s roads in a year, with 1.7 million injured.

Dr Stefan Tostmann, head of road safety for the European Commission, said that as part of the commitment, revealed in the European Road Safety Action Programme 2003-2010, each member state should strive to perform at least as well as the best-performing state.

For many countries, this would mean following the lead of Britain, which has the lowest accident rate in Europe, despite 3,500 people dying on the nation’s roads each year.

As part of the commitment, a new European Road Safety Charter calls on companies to sign up to a commitment to do their best to improve safety on the roads. Tostmann praised companies that had already made a commitment, including Johnson and Johnson Europe, Exxon and Fleet News/Fleet News Europe.