Road safety statistics for 2016 are, the European Commission says, “encouraging”. They show a drop of 2% in the number of fatalities recorded across the EU compared with the previous year. Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc nonetheless expressed concern at the numbers of those seriously injured.
Some 25,500 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2016, in other words 600 fewer than in 2015 and 6,000 fewer than in 2010 – a drop of 19% over the six years. The Commission welcomed this fall after two years of stagnation (see EUROPE 11281). Bulc, however, says that there must be no let-up in efforts if the target of halving road deaths between 2010 and 2020 is to be achieved.
Just over half of deaths occurred in accidents on rural roads, a little over a third in urban areas and less than 10% on motorways. Some 46% of those killed were in cars, 21% were pedestrians, 14% motorcyclists and 8% cyclists.
Five seriously injured for every person killed. The numbers of seriously injured are of a completely different order of magnitude, however, at around 135,000. The commissioner expressed her concern: “Just today we will lose another 70 lives on EU roads and five-times as many will sustain serious injuries!”
Widely varying results among member states. In 2016, Sweden, with 27 deaths per million inhabitants, had the lowest fatality rate, followed by the UK (28), the Netherlands (33) and Spain (37). The countries of Central and Eastern Europe seem to be lagging somewhat behind: Bulgaria recorded 99 fatalities per million inhabitants, Romania 97, Latvia 80 and Poland 79. These results have to be put into perspective, however: Latvia returned one of the biggest decreases in the number of road fatalities in 2016 (16%), alongside Lithuania (22%) and the Czech Republic (16%).
Initiative in train. The Commission is working on a number of legislative projects, including a new proposal on the training requirements for professional drivers and a review of the infrastructure safety directive. In December 2016, the Commission published a list of 19 life-saving safety technologies (see EUROPE 11670). The automatic emergency call system eCall will come on stream in March 2018, from which date all new vehicles will be fitted with the system. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)