Europe's road safety gain

New data shows an improvement in Europe's road safety during 2010.
February 28, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
New data shows an improvement in Europe's road safety during 2010. According to the statistics, road fatalities fell in the 1116 European Union by 11% in 2010 compared with the previous year. Most member states saw a double digit drop in the number of road fatalities, with the highest reductions being seen in Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden and Slovakia. These saw reductions of 33%, 29%, 26% and 26% respectively. Belgium also saw better than average road safety improvements during 2010. The number of fatalities on Belgium's roads declined by 12% in 2010, with 76 deaths for every 1 million inhabitants, continuing the drop seen in 2009. Since 2000 the number of deaths of Belgium's roads has fallen by 44%, while in the EU the number of road fatalities is down 43%. In July 2010 the 2465 European Commission adopted proposals to lower the number of road deaths in Europe by 50% by 2020. Similar road safety improvements were seen in Germany and according to the country's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, the number of people who died in road traffic incidents dropped 12% to 3,648 in 2010 compared to 2009. This is the lowest fatality rate on the German road network for 60 years, which is of note given the increase in population, vehicle numbers and total distance travelled by road. However, the number of accidents registered by the police rose by 4.3% to an 11-year high of around 2.4 million. The development was partly attributed to the exceptional weather conditions in the winter period. However Romania is noted as having Europe's most dangerous roads. The risk of serious injury or fatal accidents on Romania's road network is eight times higher than for Sweden, which has Europe's best road safety record. This data is according to a study by the 1197 European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). In 2009, 2,796 people died on Romanian roads, compared to 2,454 in 2001, an increase of 14%. The country is acknowledged as having the worst road system in the EU, followed closely by Bulgaria.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • A €700 million investment ensures a makeover for Malta’s roads
    June 3, 2019
    The European Union Road Federation (ERF) recently held a road safety workshop in Malta* Infrastructure Malta is entrusted with handling Malta’s recently announced – and unprecedented - road investment of more than €700 million over the next seven years. The government is also tapping into several European Union funds to support its own investment. Projects include construction of the Marsa Junction Project, a new seven-flyover, multi-level intersection to improve the efficiency of the country’s most imp
    Read More
  • One in 20 adults involved in UK road accident in 2012, IAM claims
    August 8, 2013
    One in 20 adults was involved in a road accident in the UK in 2012, according to road safety charity, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). Referring to information from the National Travel Survey (NTS) published by the Department for Transport (DfT), the IAM says the survey shows that 5.2% of the population admit to having been involved in an accident. The IAM says the DfT figures also reveal that men (5.6%) are more likely to be involved in an accident than women (4.8%). Overall, the IAM adds, the fi
    Read More
  • Improving road safety worldwide
    June 27, 2019
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) says that road safety requires a major transformation to halve road fatalities by 2020. Data shows that road injuries present a significant public health concern worldwide. Road crashes are one of the top 10 causes of death globally. But despite roads in the EU becoming safer each year, the reduction of road fatalities since 2010 has reached a plateau. In 2018, there were 25,100 reported road fatalities across the 28 EU member states. The average road fatality
    Read More
  • Future road safety progress may be slow
    March 9, 2018
    Future progress on road safety could be slower than hoped, according to the European Transport Safety Commission (ETSC). It warns that the high profile development of autonomous vehicles could restrain moves to improve road safety around the world. With road deaths killing up to 1.25 million people/year, lowering the casualty rate is seen as a priority. But a much sharper awareness of how to reduce the number of deaths and injuries is required.
    Read More

Highlighted Content