Skip to main content

Fall in EU road fatalities

Latest statistics show road fatalities fell in the European Union by 11% in 2010 compared with the previous year. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, France and Slovenia have all made reductions of more than 50% in the number of deaths on their roads since 2001, says the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The organisation’s 2011 PIN [Road Safety Performance Index] Awards went to Sweden and Lithuania recognising their particular efforts in reducing road deaths.
May 10, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Latest statistics show road fatalities fell in the 1116 European Union by 11% in 2010 compared with the previous year.

Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, France and Slovenia have all made reductions of more than 50% in the number of deaths on their roads since 2001, says the 1197 European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

The organisation’s 2011 PIN [Road Safety Performance Index] Awards went to Sweden and Lithuania recognising their particular efforts in reducing road deaths.

Indeed, most EU 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 (33%, 29%, 26% and 26% respectively), while Belgium also saw better than average road safety improvements during 2010, with the number of fatalities on its roads declining by 12% in 2010 (76 deaths for every 1 million inhabitants). Since 2000 the number of deaths on Belgium's roads has fallen by 44%, while in the EU the number of road fatalities is down 43%.

In July 2010 the European Commission adopted proposals to lower the number of road deaths in Europe by 50% by 2020.

In Germany, the country’s Federal Statistics Office, 5143 Destatis, says the number of people who died in road traffic incidents dropped 12% to 3,648 in 2010 compared to 2009, 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.
However, in Romania, acknowledged as having the worst road system in the EU, followed closely by Bulgaria, the risk of serious injury or fatal accidents on its road network is eight times higher than for Sweden, which has Europe's best road safety record.

A study by the ETSC reveals that in 2009, 2,796 people died on Romanian roads, compared to 2,454 in 2001, an increase of 14%.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK achieves road safety success
    December 10, 2015
    The UK has the second safest road network in the world, beaten only by Sweden according to the latest traffic data analysis from the Department for Transport (DfT). Fatalities from road crashes account for 28.3 deaths/million of population in the UK, compared with 28 fatalities/million of population in Sweden according to the DfT data. It should be noted too that the UK has a larger population and a far higher population density, as well as 35.6 million registered vehicles (an increase of 41% since 1994) an
  • Reduction seen in Czech road crash and fatality rate
    June 19, 2014
    An improvement in road safety has been revealed in the Czech Republic. Data from the Czech Transport Ministry shows that the country’s road death toll dropped by 12% for 2013 compared with the previous year. There were 583 road deaths within 24 hours of road crashes in the country during 2013, with 654 deaths within 30 days of a crash. On average 63 people/million are killed in road crashes in the Czech Republic, which is higher than the EU average of 52 deaths/million of population.. This places the Czech
  • Poland developing road safety strategy
    May 22, 2013
    The authorities in Poland are working on a road safety strategy intended to tackle the country’s high level of fatalities and injuries from traffic crashes. Improvements in safety levels are being seen with a decline in the fatality rate and in 2012, 3,600 people were killed representing a drop of 22.3% from the previous year. The first quarter of 2013 saw an 18.1% drop in road crashes, a 25.4% fall in fatalities and an 18.4% reduction in injuries compared with statistics available for the same period in 20
  • Figures reveal road fatality increase for UK
    February 5, 2015
    Road fatalities increased in the UK during 2014, compared with 2013. The latest official figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) show there were 1,730 deaths on British roads by the year ending in September in 2014, a gain of 1% over the same period for 2013. Worse still, the total killed or seriously injured (KSI) total climbed 4% to 24,360 and child casualties rose 3% to 2,060. Cyclist deaths and serious injuries are up 8% to 3,500. For the year ending September 2014, there were 192,910 reported r