World Road Safety Day highlights need for holiday car-hire action.

1.47.18pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 7th Apr 2006

On World Road Safety Day (07.04.06), London's Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Baroness Sarah Ludford is backing the call for EU wide rules to protect holiday-makers hiring cars in other EU countries, as shown by a new survey.

The survey, conducted by Eurotest Mobility, a consortium of European motoring organisations which includes the AA trust, tested hire-cars in popular holiday locations in Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Turkey. They encountered widespread problems such as alarming vehicle defects, no first-aid kits or road safety triangles in cars, unclear and overpriced insurance arrangements and hidden costs.

Sarah Ludford said:

"Many Londoners hire cars on holiday, but it is frighteningly easy to fall foul of unscrupulous car rental agencies out to make a quick buck. There is a real need for common EU rules, not only to protect consumers, but to guarantee minimum safety standards for hire-cars."

In 2005, almost 42,000 people were killed in road accidents in the EU. Sarah Ludford is urging transport companies to sign up to the European Road Safety Charter, a project which aims to reduce annual road deaths to 25,000 by 2010. Sarah added:

"There is a tendency to accept deaths on the road as inevitable when in fact they are mostly preventable. To reduce the number of victims, we must work with other European countries and set tough road safety standards for all road-users. This can complement the good local work being done in many parts of London."

Notes to editors

• To read the results of Eurotest Mobility's survey please go to: http://www.eurotestmobility.net/eurotest.php?itemno=114

• For further information about the European Road Safety Charter, please go to:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/roadsafety/index_en.htm