Statistics Explained

Archive:Road safety statistics at regional level

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Data from March 2010. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article takes a look at long-term trends in the number of lives lost in road traffic accidents in the European Union (EU), down to the regional level and thus presenting a more detailed picture of emerging patterns.

The total road death toll was cut by 48 % between 1991 and 2008 and has fallen by 31 % since the year 2000. While this positive trend can be seen across every country in Europe, there are significant variations between individual regions in the relative risk of fatal road accidents.

Map 1: Number of deaths in road traffic accidents per million inhabitants, by NUTS 2 regions, 2008 (1) Eurostat (tran_r_acci)

Main statistical findings

Road mobility comes at a high price in terms of lives lost. In 2008, just under 39 000 people lost their lives in road accidents within the EU-27, continuing the steady decrease in the number of fatalities on Europe’s roads. However, this number is still more than 20 times the total of fatalities in rail and air transport combined.

Regional risk variation

Map 1 shows the number of deaths in road traffic accidents per million inhabitants by NUTS 2 region in 2008.

National totals of fatal road accidents are taken from the CARE database. Apart from Liechtenstein and Malta, both very small and therefore difficult to compare with other countries, the lowest numbers of road fatalities per million inhabitants were recorded by Sweden (43) and most regions in the United Kingdom (43 at national level). They are followed by the Netherlands (46), Switzerland (47), Norway (54) and most German regions, especially the federal states in the west (54 at national level).

Furthermore, the relative number of fatal road accidents at regional level is comparatively low in major conglomerations and European capitals such as Wien (16 fatalities per million inhabitants), Berlin (16), Bremen (18), Oslo (Oslo og Akershus: 22), Stockholm (23), Birmingham (West Midlands: 23), Hamburg (23), Greater Manchester (24), Istanbul (25), Amsterdam (Zuid-Holland: 27), Outer London (27) and Inner London (28). The fatality rates in the more rural areas surrounding the conglomerations are always significantly higher.

With the exception of the candidate country Croatia (150 fatalities per million inhabitants), the highest rates of road deaths are found in the eastern and south-eastern European countries. Among these Lithuania has the highest fatality rate (148), followed by Poland (143), Romania (142), Latvia (139), Bulgaria (139), Greece (138), Slovakia (112) and Slovenia (106). Given the lower level of vehicle ownership still seen in most of these countries, these high figures — compared with western Europe — might partly be explained by the quality of the infrastructure and partly by the age, size and security standards of the vehicles.

Motorway density and risk

Statistically, the numbers of road deaths are particularly low for many regions with high traffic volumes. This is true especially of many regions in western Germany and England, in particular around major cities, and of most parts of the Netherlands. Especially around major cities and transport hubs (e.g. seaports), high traffic volumes cause congestion, which reduces average speeds and, therefore, also the likelihood of fatalities when accidents do occur. A closer look at this phenomenon also reveals that many of these regions tend to have high motorway density. In general, motorways are much safer than secondary roads. Furthermore, mainly transit traffic uses existing motorways, thus keeping the number of road fatalities in these regions relatively low, despite high total traffic volumes. In fact, the quality of the roads in these countries is especially high, contributing to the low number of accidents.

By contrast, fatality rates are high in regions with low motorway density, such as all of Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic except their capitals, the whole of Bulgaria, Poland, the Baltic Member States, some of the eastern federal states of Germany and many rural areas in France and Spain. These data strongly suggest that the high proportion of traffic using motorways is an important factor behind the low number of road fatalities in many regions. 

In addition to the share of the total road network accounted for by motorways, the significant reductions in the number of road deaths are also due to a combination of high in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle safety standards, speed limits and a general ‘safety culture’, including the quality of the emergency and healthcare systems.

The relatively low number of fatal road accidents in most major European cities can also be explained by the higher proportion of public transport and other modes, such as cycling and walking. While road accidents in general are more frequent in city traffic, driving at lower speed reduces the probability of serious injuries. However, an increase in the number of accidents involving nonmotorised travellers could also lead to an increase in the number of serious injuries. Consequently, the combined effect of lower speeds and of more accidents involving more vulnerable travellers is not clear-cut.

Physical geography might be another reason for the differences in per-inhabitant fatality levels. Driving in mountainous regions like the Alps, the Pyrénées and the Carpathians is often more dangerous than in flat areas and therefore leads to a higher number of accidents and fatalities. In addition, these regions attract a high volume of tourist traffic, thus adding to local traffic and, hence, the number of accidents reported per inhabitant.

Data sources and availability

Eurostat collects, compiles and disseminates a variety of regional indicators. Data on road accidents are currently collected by EU Member States and candidate countries on a voluntary basis via annual questionnaires.

All data are annual, with time series going back to 1988.

Regional road safety was addressed by dividing the number of fatalities in road transport by the number of inhabitants per region. In contrast to the data on people injured, the data on road casualties are comparable across Europe.

The precise definitions of all variables used can be found in the 'Glossary for transport statistics'. The basic data used in the map has been extracted from Eurostat’s website.

Context

In response to the growing concern shown by European citizens over road safety, the European Union made this issue a priority of its common transport policy set out in the 2001 White Paper on transport ‘Time to decide’ and its mid-term review in 2006 (‘Keep Europe moving — Sustainable mobility for our continent’). In that White Paper, the European Commission set the target of halving the number of road fatalities between 2000 and 2010. To achieve this objective, a number of steps have been taken, including introducing higher vehicle safety standards, improving the quality of road infrastructure, extending the traffic regulations combined with enforcing the existing regulations and improving driver education.

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Road transport (t_road)
People killed in road accidents (tsdtr420)

Database

Multimodal data (tran)
Regional transport statistics (tran_r)
Victims in road accidents by NUTS 2 regions (tran_r_acci)

Dedicated section

Methodology / Metadata

Other information

External links

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