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Road Safety
Tunnel Safety
Because of the confined environment, accidents in tunnels, and particularly fires, can have dramatic consequences. In addition, the potential disruption of the transport system following a major fire amplifies these consequences and can cause severe disturbances in the economy of a whole region.
Directive 2004/54/EC entered into force on 30 April 2004 and requires that all tunnels longer than 500 meters and belonging to the Trans European Road Network meet minimum safety requirements. More than 500 tunnels in operation, under construction or at the design stage, are concerned by the Directive.
Objective of the Directive is to prevent accidents endangering human life, the environment and tunnel installations. Moreover, it aims at improving self-rescue conditions for people involved in serious accidents, like large-scale fires.
The Directive defines a set of standards relating to the organisation, the roles and responsibilities of the various bodies in charge of safety in tunnels as well as technical standards for tunnel infrastructure, operation, traffic rules and user information.
