Driving Instructors Association DIA

 CIECA Conference

Driving reports from the 36th CIECA Conference in Warsaw, a significant international event in the driver testing industry

The National Road Safety Council of Poland sponsored this year's CIECA conference in Warsaw.
CIECA is a grouping of government organisations with an interest in learner testing, but as many of the membership countries look after the administration of instructors' registers, their welfare has become more prevalent. And it is not restricted to governments either as Belgium, Holland and Croatia outsource their testing to private companies; as does the UK with its Theory and Hazard Perception Test.

Representing the UK at the conference was DSA Chief Executive Gary Austin and Policy Director Paul Butler. No doubt Pearsons' representatives were too busy gearing up to take over the theory testing contract for the DSA to be able to attend.

CIECA had invited 3 delegates from the IVV and DIA: IVV President and DIA General Secretary Graham R J Fryer, Chairman of the IVV European Assembly Gérard Acourt and President of DIA Poland Adam Czarnowski. The congress was opened by W Górski, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Infrastructure, with words of welcome from Willem Vanbroeckhoven, President of CIECA.

Issues in Road Safety Involving Poland Being Recently Admitted EC Membership was the introductory lecture by Andrzej Grzegorczyk, Director of the Secretariat of National Road Safety Council. He reiterated the factors influencing road safety in Poland, which seem to be virtually the same criteria affecting the other 25 countries within the EC.

While the exposure to road crashes was better than the statistics from some member countries such as Greece, Poland has some way to go towards the reduction of road traffic crashes.

Shockingly, it was also revealed that there was a degree of corruption involved in the crash statistics. Poland is one of a number of countries newly admitted to the EC where people can actually buy driving licences to circumvent training and even testing.

Severe concern was noted, but there was little evidence that policies were at hand to eliminate this practice. Even Demetrious Theologitis, Director General for Transport and Energy of the European Commission, gave no assurances that legislation was in place to combat fraud, especially with the road safety charter being promoted by his department.

Presentations were also given by Maciej Wronski, Road Transport Department, Ministry of Infrastructure, on a new system of young driver education in Poland.

Dr Gregor Bartl, Institut Gute Fahrt from Austria presented Initiatives in the Field of Young Drivers Education in Europe. Other presentations included Medical and Psychological Testing for Professional Drivers in Poland by A. Markowski, Association of Polish Transport Psychologists, and Implementing Gadget's Level 3 & 4 in Driver Education and Testing by J. Vissers, Traffic Test, the Netherlands.

Professor B. Bielhl gave the ETSCs' views and activities in the field of professional drivers, and E. Prediger, Ministry of Transport, Czech Republic and J. Zymlowski, Polish Automobile Association, presented The Professional Driver in Poland and Czech Republic.

The 37th CIECA Congress will be held in Helskini, Finland, in May 2005.