Archive:Road safety statistics at regional level
- Data from March 2008, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
An analysis of the regional distribution of road fatalities shows that, while the overall number of fatal road accidents in the European Union (EU) has fallen since 1991, significant regional disparities remain, providing an insight into the conditions that favour low fatality rates in road transport.
Main statistical findings
Currently, road mobility still comes at a high price in terms of lives lost. In 2006, about 43 000 people lost their lives in road accidents within the EU-27, which is more than 20 times the combined total of fatalities in rail and air transport. Given the growing concern of European citizens over road safety, the European Union has made this issue a priority of its common transport policy, as 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 proposed to reach the target of halving the number of road fatalities between 2000 and 2010. To achieve this objective, a number of actions have been taken, including the introduction of higher vehicle safety standards, improvement of the quality of road infrastructure and the extension of the regulations concerning traffic, as well as an enforcement of existing regulations and improved education of drivers. As a result, and despite the significant growth in European road traffic volumes, it has been possible to reduce the total road death toll by 44 % between 1991 and 2006, and by 23 % since the year 2000. While this positive trend can be seen across all countries, there are significant variations between the European regions in terms of the relative risk of fatal road accidents.
Map 1 shows the number of deaths in road traffic accidents per million inhabitants by NUTS 2 region in 2006.
- National totals, taken from the European Road Accident Database CARE, show that the lowest recorded numbers of road fatalities per million inhabitants are in the Netherlands (45 fatalities per million inhabitants), Switzerland (50), most German regions — especially for the ‘former’ federal states in the west – (Germany: 63), Sweden (49) and Norway (53), the majority of regions in the UK (54) and the south of Italy. Furthermore, the relative number of fatal road accidents at regional level is comparably low in major agglomeration areas and European capitals such as Wien (20 fatalities per million inhabitants), Berlin (22), Inner London (26), Hamburg (16), Düsseldorf (30), Stockholm (31), Zuid-Holland (35) Köln (37), Île-de-France (41), Madrid (47), Lisboa (48) and Praha (58). The fatality rates in the more rural areas surrounding the agglomerations are always significantly higher.
- The highest rates of road deaths are to be found in the eastern and south-eastern Member States. Lithuania has the highest fatality rate (223 fatalities per million inhabitants), followed by Latvia (177), Estonia (164), Greece (159), Slovenia (140), Poland (137), Slovakia (130), Bulgaria (124) and Romania (115). Given the still lower level of vehicle ownership in most of these countries, the reasons behind these high values — compared with western Europe —can probably be found in the quality of infrastructure supply and a less developed awareness of road safety issues in these countries. Especially striking are the high fatality rates in Greece, which are by far the highest in the EU-15.
- It is noticeable that, statistically, the numbers of road deaths are particularly low for many regions with high traffic volumes. This is valid especially for most regions in western Germany, for the Netherlands and the southern part of England. A closer look at this phenomenon reveals that many of these regions also tend to have a high motorway density. In general, motorways are much safer than secondary roads. Given that it is mainly transit traffic that uses existing motorways, the number of road fatalities in these regions is relatively low, despite high total traffic volumes. In fact, high transport volumes also cause congestion, which reduces average speeds and therefore also the likelihood of fatalities when accidents do occur. Finally, the quality of the roads in these countries is especially high, thus contributing to a low number of accidents.
- In contrast, high fatality rates are found in regions with a low motorway density such as the north-eastern part of Germany, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (109) and Brandenburg (103), as well as the Baltic Member States, the whole of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary (103), and many rural areas in France and the Iberian peninsula. These data strongly underline the fact that the high proportion of traffic using motorways is a 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 outof-vehicle safety standards, speed regulations and a general ‘safety culture’, including the quality of the emergency and health systems.
- The relatively low number of fatal road accidents in most of the major European cities can be explained by the higher proportion of public transport and other modes of transport, such as bicycle and pedestrian traffic. 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 non-motorised travel may also lead to an increase in the number of serious injuries. Thus, the combined effect of lower speed and more accidents involving less protected traffic participants 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 Pyrenees and the Carpathian Mountains is probably more dangerous than in flat areas, and therefore leads to an increased number of accidents and fatalities. In addition, these regions attract a high volume of tourist traffic, thus increasing local traffic and hence the number of reported accidents per inhabitant.
- Some of the French overseas regions like Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyane have a relatively high percentage of road fatalities per inhabitant. Possible reasons include a high proportion of motorcycle traffic and poor road quality in these regions.
Data sources and availability
Eurostat collects, compiles and disseminates a variety of regional indicators. Data on road accidents are currently collected by 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 persons 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 maps and tables have been extracted from Eurostat’s website, although not all the derived indicators can be found directly on Eurostat’s website.
Context
Given the growing concern of European citizens over road safety, the European Union has made this issue a priority of its common transport policy, as 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 proposed to reach the target of halving the number of road fatalities between 2000 and 2010. To achieve this objective, a number of actions have been taken, including the introduction of higher vehicle safety standards, improvement of the quality of road infrastructure and the extension of the regulations concerning traffic, as well as an enforcement of existing regulations and improved education of drivers.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
Main tables
Database
- Victims in road accidents at regional level