In its annual study on preliminary road mortality figures, published on Thursday 4 April, the European Commission notes that 25,100 people died in road accidents last year in the European Union.
These figures are thus down by a little less than 1% compared to 2017, when 25,300 people died in road accidents (see EUROPE 11998/1).
"I am glad to report that progress has been made", said Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport Policy, at a press conference. "Our joint engagement is paying off", she added.
That said, the number of 25,100 people who died after a road accident remains "unacceptable" to her. 'Vision Zero', i.e. reducing road deaths to zero by 2050, must remain a priority objective that the Commissioner considers "possible" to achieve.
Mrs Bulc referred to several legislative initiatives aimed in particular at reducing accidents and which have been the subject of an interinstitutional agreement in recent weeks or months, such as the Vehicle General Safety Regulation (see EUROPE 12222/21) and the texts on road infrastructure safety management (see EUROPE 12199/3) or on the architecture of the Connecting Europe Facility post-2020 (see EUROPE 12210/5). "Let's focus on implementing" these rules, said Bulc, who also wants special efforts to be made to protect vulnerable users, especially in urban areas.
Within the EU, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland have the best road safety records, with 28, 30 and 31 deaths per million inhabitants respectively. In contrast, Romania (96 deaths per million inhabitants) and Bulgaria (88/million) are the EU Member States most affected by the scourge of road deaths. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)