text: Henk Stipdonk and Heather Ward are to take over as co-chairs of the ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme steering group, it has been announced. Professor Richard Allsop, chair of the programme since its creation in 2006, will step down in June.
  Dr Stipdonk is the head of the road safety assessment and forecasting department at SWOV, the Dutch institute for road safety research. He joined SWOV in 2004 from the Dutch ministry of transport where he headed several departments over a 14-year period. In 2013, he authored ‘Road Safety in bits and pieces’, an assessment of the factors driving changes to road fatality figures over time. His work focusses on improving road safety by understanding crash data in order to inform fact-based policy.
  Ms Ward is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London and an independent expert on road safety and injury prevention. Heather has worked in road safety research at UCL for the EU, National and Local Governments, the OECD, UK charities and trusts, and research organisations in Australia.
  Professor Richard Allsop OBE, current chair of the PIN programme steering group, will remain as an advisor and continue as a board member of ETSC.
  Antonio Avenoso, executive director of ETSC said:
  “Through its annual award programme, performance index reports, national events and yearly conference, the PIN programme has helped inspire policy changes across Europe that have contributed to a 50% cut in road deaths over the last ten years. We are very grateful to Richard for his enormous energy, passion and commitment to this work; his contribution has been invaluable. I’m delighted that he will remain with us as a board member and as an advisor on the PIN programme.
  “Henk and Heather are bringing a huge wealth of experience and knowledge on road safety; and both have guided national policies in countries that now have the safest roads in the world. We are thrilled to have them on board.”
  Richard Allsop said:
  “It was good to be able to help ETSC to establish the PIN programme in 2006 and it has since been a privilege to be entrusted with its chairing by the many road safety professionals across Europe whose contributions make the work possible, by the Steering Group and by the ETSC team. I’m very glad that Henk and Heather are ready to take over, and look forward to keeping in touch with the work.”
  - The next ETSC PIN annual report will be launched at the PIN conference on 18 June in Brussels. For more details and to register, visit the website at www.etsc.eu/pin2015.