Source: Baltic Transport Journal 5/2015

1. 60 | Baltic Transport Journal | 5/2015
EU road safety trends, statistics and main challenges
We can still do better
by Maciej Kniter
The statistics for 2014 reveal that the EU is not only making impressive progress in the road safety field,
but also with the number of 51 dead per one million inhabitants, its roads are the safest in the world. The
result of 5,700 deaths less than in 2010 may be amazing, however, fighting the remaining 25.7 thou. casual-
ties and over 200 thou. injured per year still remains a big challenge that needs to be properly addressed.
per one mln inhabitants. At the extreme
end are Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Bul-
garia, Greece, Croatia and Poland, hav-
ing more than 80 dead per one mln citi-
zens. Although there is visible progress
throughout the EU, we can also observe
that the decrease rate slowed down by
2014 to 1% year-on-year. Despite this
slowdown, it is particularly encourag-
ing that the EU is not moving backwards.
Where, who and when?
The vast majority (62%) of all fatal
crashes takes place on inter-urban roads,
whereas the remaining 38% is inside
urban areas. Among all the motorways,
the TEN-T network is the safest – only 8%
of all fatalities occur on these roads. A big
disproportion is observed regarding the
gender of the fatalities where 76% are men
(94% when it comes to motorcyclists!). And
while young people (aged between 15 and
24) make up 11% of the population, they
account for 17% of the road death toll. The
last figure will hopefully change as youth’s
overinflated share has been decreasing
slightly over the past years.
Similar to the overrepresentation of
some groups, road accidents are not equally
spread throughout the year. Weekends and
holidays bring more crashes than normal
work days; the weekend risk pattern is
especially strong for 18-24 year olds, and
particularly at night. In general, February
Although there is visible progress
throughout the EU, we can also observe
that the decrease rate slowed down by
2014 to 1% year-on-year.
N
onetheless, using the single
“EU” term when it comes to
road safety in Europe may be
misleading as there is a great
disparity between the Union’s countries
in the road accidents fatality rate, as one
can conclude from the European Com-
mission’s report Road safety in the Euro-
pean Union. Trends, statistics and main
challenges. First tier countries like Swe-
den, the Netherlands and the UK have the
lowest number of deaths below 30 dead
Fig. 1. Fatality rate per EU Member State in 2010 and 2014 Fig. 2. Share of road deaths per month
Source: the European Commission’s Road safety in the European Union. Trends, sta-
tistics and main challenges report
Source: the European Commission’s Road safety in the European Union. Trends, sta-
tistics and main challenges report
Photo:WikimediaCommons

2. 5/2015 | Baltic Transport Journal | 61
Focus
is the safest month with less than 6% of
deaths, representing less than half of July
and August’s output (10% each).
Pedestrian safety
Foot-traveller fatalities have decreased
slower than other road-associated deaths
since 2010, marking in total 22% of all
killed on the roads in 2013. People older
than 65 were the most represented age
group in pedestrian fatalities – 44%, twice
as many as those aged 50-64. Addition-
ally, the risk of being run over is higher
in urban areas (69%). Romania, Latvia,
Poland and Lithuania especially have a
high number of pedestrian deaths (more
than one third of those killed in road traf-
fic crashes are pedestrians).
Governments have undergone several
steps to improve the situation. First of all,
measures are aimed at setting up safe cross-
ings, raising the awareness of the possibility
of running into intoxicated pedestrians as
well as at equipping walkers with reflective
materials. Some countries, like Bulgaria, have
decided to raise sanctions for drivers who
infringe rules at pedestrian crossings and bus
stops, and at the same time for pedestrians
in breach of traffic regulations. Others, e.g.
Poland, have been revising the pedestrian
crossings right-of-way regulations, but the
Being a motorcyclist is definitely less
safe than being a car user. There are 11
motorcyclist deaths per 100 thou. motor-
cycles reported comparing to five car
driver deaths per 100 thou. automobiles.
latest proposal on granting pedestrians full
priority over other road parties on both the
crossings and near them has been rejected
by the state’s senate.
Cyclists
The data for cyclists (8% of all deaths)
prove that it’s not only about the infra-
structure and the most recent investments
or initiatives, but also about traffic inten-
sity, i.e. how many people use particu-
lar means of transport. For instance, the
Netherlands, widely identified as the bike
homeland, has noted the highest cyclist
death rate in the whole EU – 24%, followed
by Denmark with its 17%.
Cyclists suffer fatal and serious crashes on
both urban and inter-urban roads, the first
accounting for 57% of all cyclist fatalities. The
most common serious injuries are to head
and neck, however, the impact of those can
be easily reduced by wearing a bicycle helmet
which can reduce the risk of head and brain
injuries by as much as 63-88%.
High risk group
Being a motorcyclist is definitely less safe
than being a car user. There are 11 motor-
cyclist deaths per 100 thou. motorcycles
reported comparing to five car driver deaths
per 100 thou. automobiles. Additionally,
the motorcyclists’ share of 15% of all fatali-
ties is much higher comparing to 3% of
moped riders. However, the number of
motorcyclists killed on roads in the EU has
decreased by 17% between 2010 and 2013.
The lowest shares are reported in Estonia,
Romania and Bulgaria (5%), whereas shares
above the EU average are noted in Greece,
Cyprus, Malta, Italy, France, UK, Spain
and Germany. A killed motorcyclist is sta-
tistically very young – 57% of them were
between 25 and 49 years old, and as men-
tioned earlier 94% of killed motorcyclists
in 2014 were men.
Having said all of this, it’s worth consid-
ering where the lowest point of road crash
fatalities actually is. What will road statistics
say 10 years from now? Can we totally con-
trol our lives and predict with 100% accu-
racy that a journey will have a usual, one
can say, “happy” ending, even riding com-
pletely sober, being a non-speeding driver
with one’s seatbelt fastened? Hopefully, the
answer is “yes”, since in the end it’s better
to have unrealistic ideals than none at all. ‚
A d v e r t i s e m e n t