Brussels, 21/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Only 1,256 deaths were registered on the railways in 2010. This is the safest year since 2006, according to the figures collected by the European Railway Agency from the member states. This also equates to a 10% drop compared to the previous year. Sixty per cent of fatal accidents concerned people not authorised to be on the railways, and only 5% of deaths were of passengers or employees of the railways. However, these figures do not take account of suicides, which exceeded accidental deaths by some margin, with more than 2,500 cases on the European railway network. In all, there were 2,400 rail accidents in the Union in 2010, which constitutes an improvement on previous years. The most visible reduction in the number of accidents concerns derailments. However, improvements are needed on level crossings, where a quarter of all recorded accidents took place. There were 619 accidents on more than 120,000 level crossings on the European Railway network. (MD/transl.fl)