Tuesday 18 October 2011

Road safety: EU road fatalities fall by 11% in 2010

The European Commission has published new statistics showing that EU road fatalities decreased by 11% in 2010 (reports ACEM, the European motorcycle manufacturers' association). However, country by country statistics (see table below), show that the number of deaths still varies greatly across the EU.

Most countries achieved double-digit reductions in the number of road deaths over the past year, the best ones being Luxembourg (33%), Malta (29%) Sweden (26%) and Slovakia (26%). However there is still a lot of work to be done.

Road fatalities by country (per million inhabitants)

Member State / Fatalities by population / Evolution of fatalities


2001 2010 2009 - 2010 2001 - 2010
Latvija 236 97 -14.00% -61.00%
Lietuva 202 90 -19.00% -58.00%
Spain 136 54 -9.00% -55.00%
Sweden 66 28 -26.00% -54.00%
Luxembourg 159 64 -33.00% -54.00%
Slovenia 114 53 -25.00% -53.00%
Ireland 107 45 -16.00% -51.00%
France 134 62 -7.00% -51.00%
Slovenia 140 68 -19.00% -50.00%
Portugal 163 79 1.00% -49.00%
Germany 85 45 -12.00% -48.00%
United Kingdom 61 31 -18.00% -47.00%
The Netherlands 62 32 -17.00% -46.00%
Belgium 145 76 -12.00% -44.00%
Italy 125 66 -6.00% -44.00%
EU 112 62 -11.00% -43.00%
Austria 119 66 -13.00% -42.00%
Estonia 146 88 20.00% -41.00%
Hungary 121 74 -10.00% -40.00%
Czech Republic 130 76 -11.00% -40.00%
Cyprus 140 75 -15.00% -39.00%
Denmark 81 48 -13.00% -39.00%
Finland 84 51 -1.00% -36.00%
Greece 172 116 -10.00% -30.00%
Poland 145 102 -15.00% -29.00%
Bulgaria 124 102 -14.00% -23.00%
Malta 41 36 -29.00% -6.00%
Romania 109 111 -15.00% -3.00%

The table shows progress under the 2001–10 road safety action plan, with EU-wide figures and a breakdown per country. It includes the most recent figures for 2010. EU road safety action plan In July 2010 the Commission adopted challenging plans to reduce the number of road deaths on Europe's roads by half in the next 10 years. Initiatives proposed in the "European Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020" range from setting higher standards for vehicle safety, to improving the training of road users, and increasing the enforcement of road rules.

The Commission is working closely with Member States to implement this programme. Road safety action programme 2011–20: The Road Safety action programme sets out a mix of initiatives focussing on making improvements to vehicles, infrastructure and road users' behaviour.

There are seven strategic objectives:
• Improved safety measures for trucks and cars
• Building safer roads
•Developing intelligent vehicles
• Strengthening licensing and training
•Better enforcement
• Targeting injuries
• A new focus on motorcyclists

The European Commission intends to propose the following measures for powered two wheelers:

• to introduce a number of functional vehicle safety measures like e.g. mandatory fitting of Advanced Brake Systems, Automatic Headlamp On and updated anti-tampering measures (so speed contols cannot be removed) for certain categories of PTWs

• to develop technical standards on protective equipment such as clothing, and to study the feasibility of equipping motorcycles with an airbag and/or including the airbag in the protective clothing,

• to extend EU legislation on road worthiness testing/inspections to motorbikes and other powered two wheelers (which does not exist at the moment)

Source: European Commission

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