Skip to main content

Europe’s road safety improves

Europe’s road safety is seeing steady improvement.
By MJ Woof September 1, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Road crashes, injuries and fatalities have been reduce in Europe over the last 14 years - image © courtesy of Mike Woof

Road safety in Europe has seen steady improvement over the last 14 years, according to the latest official data. While vehicle numbers have continued to increase during this period, fatalities from road crashes have fallen.

Since 2006, vehicle numbers have increased by around 45 million, a jump of 16.8%, to around 312 million. However, in spite of this, road fatalities have fallen 42.4% to around 25,000.

This shows the continued gains in road safety through a series of measures. Eastern European nations have typically scored poorly for road safety but a range of measures have helped lower the casualty rate. Injuries and crashes have also been reduced.

Related Content

  • Polish road safety improves
    September 8, 2023
    Polish road safety has seen improvements.
  • Japan’s safer roads see casualties fall
    January 10, 2018
    Japan has seen its road safety levels improve significantly in 2017, compared with the previous year. Data compiled by Japan’s National Police Agency shows that there were 3,694 traffic fatalities in the country in 2017, a drop of 210 from the previous year. There were 1,171 pedestrian fatalities, a drop of 1% from the previous year. Meanwhile vehicle occupants accounted for 1,106 deaths and 436 cyclists were killed in crashes. According to the authorities, tougher enforcement of road traffic rules played
  • Lithuania’s safer roads – lower casualties
    June 28, 2019
    A notable improvement has been seen in road safety in Lithuania. This is of note, given that the country used to have an extremely poor record for road crashes and road fatalities. In the period from 2001 to 2018, the country’s average road fatality rate plummeted by 75.9%. This is the biggest reduction in road deaths seen in any EU nation, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The safety improvement has been continuous in Lithuania during this period according to the ETSC’s data, which
  • Europe’s road safety figures disappoint
    March 28, 2017
    Europe’s road safety is failing to improve despite a string of measures introduced in recent years. The European Commission has published new data showing that deaths on EU roads fell by just 2% last year. This followed a 1% increase in road deaths during 2015. According to ETSC analysis, road deaths will now need to fall by 11.5%/year in order to meet the EU target of cutting deaths by half in the decade to 2020. Commenting on the publication of the latest figures, Antonio Avenoso, Executive Directo