Skip to main content

Greece’s road safety problem from single vehicle crashes

Single vehicle crashes are a serious problem in Greece. The country has the highest rate of deaths in the European Union from single-vehicle crashes (SVC) involving just one vehicle.
May 31, 2017 Read time: 1 min
Single vehicle crashes are a serious problem in Greece. The country has the highest rate of deaths in the European Union from single-vehicle crashes (SVC) involving just one vehicle.

According to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), SVCs are responsible for one third of road fatalities in the EU in the 2013-2015 period. In Greece, however, they were the cause of 42% of road deaths, ahead of Luxembourg and Cyprus with 41%, Belgium with 38%, Norway with 37% and France with 36%.


More specifically, mortality rates in Greece from SVCs are on average the EU’s highest, with 34 deaths/million inhabitants each year. Moreover, 35% of SVC fatalities involved motorcycle riders who are more exposed to danger compared with car and truck drivers.

SVC mortality rates are higher in the 18-24 age group, with an average of 72 deaths in Greece/million people in this bracket. This is way above the average of 23 EU countries, with 38 young drivers and riders/million killed in SVCs.

Related Content

  • Europe’s single vehicle crashes
    February 7, 2018
    A third of road deaths in the EU are caused by collisions that involve a single motorised vehicle where the driver, rider and/or passengers are killed but no other road users are involved. Nearly 7300 road users lost their lives in 2015 in SVCs in the EU. Around 94,800 people have died in such collisions in the last 10 years. Across the EU, the total number of people killed in SVCs was cut by 43% over the period 2005-2014. Deaths caused by collisions of this type have fallen a bit faster than road dea
  • Single vehicle crash risk too high in Europe
    July 13, 2017
    Research shows that single vehicle crashes (SVCs) are a serious problem for road users in Europe. According to crash analysis, around 7300 road users in the EU were killed during 2015 in SVCs. The data also shows that around 94,800 people were killed in SVCs in the EU over the last 10 years.
  • Europe’s road safety challenge for the future
    March 2, 2022
    Europe’s road safety challenge is to reduce casualties for the future.
  • Better road safety reduces Europe’s casualty figures
    October 2, 2014
    Improving road safety in the EU has resulted in a drop in the fatality rate. Official figures just released show that the number of people killed on Europe's roads fell by 8% in 2013. This follows on from the drop in fatalities of between 2011 and 2012 and Europe is on track to halve road deaths in the 2010-2020 period Figures released by the European Commission provide grounds for optimism and Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) said, “We welcome the reductio