C.A.S.H.

13,361 road fatalities occurred in 2007 in the BSR. 10 percent of these are caused by an accident involving heavy vehicle. The problem C.A.S.H. addresses is traffic safety of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s), including Dangerous Goods (DG) and oversized transport in international traffic in each of the participating countries/regions. Although EU legislation on HGV and DG transport is being harmonised at the European level, the implementation and interpretation of existing regulations as well as the operating procedures varies substantially between countries. This is very much the case also in the BSR. C.A.S.H. aims at connecting the proper authorities across borders and creating co-operation and dialogue between them in order to improve and promote safer border-crossing HGV.

C.A.S.H. focuses on three main themes:

1. harmonising training requirements of HGV and DG inspection officials in the Baltic Sea region in WP3;
2. enhancing cooperation between authorities involved in safety of border-crossing Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV), Dangerous Goods (DG) and oversize transport in WP4;
3. testing state-of-the-art safety and security equipment and IT systems to be used by relevant authorities in WP5.

The main expected outcome of the project is improved and enhanced co-operation between authorities involved in safety of border-crossing Heavy Goods Vehicle and Dangerous Goods Transport. Ultimately this will lead to less accidents, and consequently, less people injured or dead in HGV related road traffic. Inspection officials in the BSR enjoy harmonised training on how to monitor, inspect and secure HGV and DG transport and are applying the same standards and methods when inspecting HGV’s and DG transports across the BSR. Also the end-users, i.e. shippers and transport companies of goods across the BSR and beyond will benefit from the results. Faster and more uniform inspections will reduce costs of transport which is in the interest of all European Union citizens, and help create a level playing field for carriers complying to the rules. An additional outcome will also be better cooperation in HGV related crime prevention in the BSR, thus improving security.