EU road deaths fall by 2% in 2017

08.03 | 11 April 2018 | | 3 comments

The European Commission says reaching the EU goal of halving road fatalities between 2010 and 2020 will now be ‘very challenging’, despite a year-on-year fall of 2% in 2017.

Figures published yesterday (10 April) show that 25,300 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2017, 300 fewer than in 2016. However, the figure is only 6,200 (20%) fewer than 2010.

In the UK, there were 27 road deaths per million inhabitants in 2017, a 5% year-on-year fall. With 25 road deaths per million inhabitants, only Sweden had a better record.

The biggest decline in the number road deaths per million inhabitants came in Estonia – down 32% to 36; while the greatest rise came in Cyprus – up 15% to 62.

The EC estimates that 135,000 people were seriously injured on Europe’s roads in 2017, contributing to an overall socio-economic cost of €120bn (£105bn).

Violeta Bulc, the EC’s commissioner for transport, said: “Road safety is of course a responsibility shared with the member states, but I believe that the EU can do more to better protect Europeans.

“The Commission is currently working on a series of concrete measures that we plan to announce in the coming weeks. The ambition is clear: saving more lives on our roads.”

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) says it is ‘eagerly awaiting’ the EC’s ‘long-awaited’ package of road safety legislation.

Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the ETSC, said: “For four years in a row, the European Commission has announced poor results on road safety.  

“And for four years in a row, there has been almost no new EU action on concrete policy measures to combat the scourge of road deaths and injury. The time for action is long overdue.

“We are calling for safer vehicle standards such as mandatory fitment of automated emergency braking (AEB) and intelligent speed assistance (ISA); better infrastructure safety rules and a solid framework for the safe rollout of automated driving within weeks not months.”


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    Thanks Hugh. I totally agree that it’s not just about deaths but about the whole aspect of safety on our roads and not just speeders. I find it interesting to note that there is a 50/50 split between those that believe that speeding is the greatest danger and killer on the roads and others who do not believe what I said. That it is not the greatest killer

    I played devil’s advocate when I wrote that and it seems that we are equally divided in believing that doing speeders is the way to go, or that doing speeders is not the correct way to go.

    Let us hope that their concentrated efforts within the EC can address the problems other than having everything automated that is.


    Bob Craven
    Agree (2) | Disagree (0)
    +2

    There’s a danger in regarding fatalities as the only measure of road safety, as if life- changing injuries don’t count. A reduction in fatalities due to the efforts of car manufacturers and the emergency services and medical staff is not good news if the downside is an increase in life-changing injuries to the victims.

    If fatalities are reduced because collisions have reduced, then injuries will have reduced as well – a reduction in collisions should therefore be the ‘target’ for any road safety organisation, not fatalities.


    Hugh Jones
    Agree (13) | Disagree (2)
    +11

    Tell you what we must do and by that I mean a concerted effort by TISPOL… have a week stopping and reporting offenders for speeding. You never know that might just help and might dramatically reduce the overall totals of collisions injuries and deaths.

    We are all aware that speed, speed, speed is the greatest killer. Its obvious by most reports published on this site that come out in favour of reducing our speeds to that of a crawl.

    PS this is not necessarily the opinion of the site owners or any of those that are involved in road safety.


    Bob Craven
    Agree (6) | Disagree (6)
    0

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