Skip to main content

Polish road safety continues to improve

Official data from Poland shows a continued improvement in road safety. The data reveals that there were 5% fewer accidents, almost 8% fewer fatalities, a 5% decrease in injuries and a 5% reduction in drink-drivers. The information was made available recently through Pan-European police body TISPOL. According to TISPOL, the statistics confirm that police action can be effective in reducing vehicle crashes. Comparing the data for 2013 with statistics for 2012 and 2011 reveals a notable drop in road crashes,
January 16, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Official data from Poland shows a continued improvement in road safety. The data reveals that there were 5% fewer accidents, almost 8% fewer fatalities, a 5% decrease in injuries and a 5% reduction in drink-drivers. The information was made available recently through Pan-European police body 4753 TISPOL. According to TISPOL, the statistics confirm that police action can be effective in reducing vehicle crashes. Comparing the data for 2013 with statistics for 2012 and 2011 reveals a notable drop in road crashes, injuries and fatalities. In 2013 there were 35,385 traffic crashes reported, 1,681 fewer than in 2012 when there were 37,046 while in 2011 there were 40,065 incidents. In 2013 the number of road deaths in Poland dropped to 3,291, some 280 fewer than in 2012. The number of injuries fell to 43,471, some 2,321 fewer than in 2012. Referring back to 1991, there were more than 54,000 traffic crashes reported, in which almost 8,000 people died. The data shows that police action directed toward the improvement of road safety are proving effective.

Removing drink-drivers from the road is one of the most important priorities amongst police operations to boost road safety. During last four years the number of controlled drivers increased four-fold; in 2013 there were 8,879,522 breath tests carried out. During 2013, police officers stopped 162,090 drivers over the alcohol limit. In 2011 this figure was 183,488, and in 2012 it was 171,020 drivers.

The Chief of Polish Police also took the decision to increase the number of traffic police officers so that they would comprise 10% of all police numbers. The next step is to fill the vacancies, which in turn increases the number of traffic officers to 9,100, the highest ever number of traffic officers on Polish roads. Polish road safety has also been aided by the introduction of new equipment such as unmarked vehicles with video recorders.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Better road safety reduces Europe’s casualty figures
    April 1, 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. These provisional 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 reduction in the number of road deaths in Europe last yea
  • Road deaths continue to fall in many countries
    June 4, 2015
    The latest information from IRTAD, the permanent working group on road safety at the International Transport Forum, shows that road deaths are falling in many countries worldwide. There were 42% fewer road deaths in IRTAD countries since 2000. However, strong disparities exist between countries, according to IRTAD’s latest data. In all 70 organisations from 39 countries are members of IRTAD. The 2014 provisional data show that 15 of the IRTAD member countries for which figures are available managed to red
  • Report on cost of US crashes
    March 11, 2016
    A comprehensive analysis of crash statistics in the US reveals the shocking cost of vehicle crashes. The report has been collated by the by the US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and is based on details collated for 2010. The report states that in 2010 there were 32,999 fatalities, 3.9 million injured, and 24 million vehicles damaged following crashes in the US. The economic costs of these crashes totalled US$242 billion. Included in these losses are lost
  • World road safety status hits plateau
    May 27, 2016
    The World Health Organisation has published a new report on road safety during 2015. Its global status report uses information from 180 countries and indicates that the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million/year worldwide. The annual global road fatality rate has remained roughly the same since 2007, a point worth noting considering growing vehicle numbers around the globe. Low income countries remain those of most concern for this report as in previous years. But some progress i