EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Security, Society, Transport

According to the Commission’s report, the number of road fatalities has decreased only by approximately 1% compared to 2013. This follows on the 8% decrease in 2012 and 2013.

The figures reveal a total of 25 700 road deaths in 2014 across all EU-28 states. Whilst this is 5700 fewer than in 2010, it falls short of the intended target decrease.

Commission’s opinion

The EU Commissioner for transport, Violeta Bulc, underlined that need for additional measures to deal with road fatalities. She said that death of 70 Europeans every day (with many more being seriously injured) is unacceptable.

The figures also showed that road safety required constant attention and further efforts. She added: "We need to step up our work for the coming years, to reach the intended EU target of halving the number of road deaths by 2020. Let's work together to make sure more people come home safely at the end of their journey. This is one of my priorities and should be one of the priorities of all governments in all the member states!"

Reference: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4656_en.htm.  

Statistics for the member states

In 2014, the country specific statistics (see Annex below) show that the number of road deaths still vary greatly across the EU. The average EU fatality rate for 2014 is expected to be 51 road deaths per million inhabitants.

Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom continue to report the lowest road fatality rates, with less than 30 deaths per million inhabitants.

Four countries still report fatality rates above 90 dead per million inhabitants: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

However the figures published show that the total number of EU road deaths has decreased by 18.2% since 2010.

Some European countries report a better than average road safety improvement over the years. This is the case of notably Greece, Portugal and Spain. Equally Denmark, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Romania, Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic report a reduction of road deaths above the EU average for 2010-14.

Road safety targets and actions

In order to reach the EU strategic target of halving the number of road deaths from 2010 to 2020, additional efforts are now needed. Most every-day road safety actions are done at local or national level, for example through the enforcement of road traffic rules, education campaigns and infrastructure development and maintenance.

The EU contributes with legislation and recommendations on issues of common concern, for example on the minimum requirements for technical vehicle inspections and the harmonisation of technical standards.

Further Commission’s efforts

The Commission intends to make the following steps:

- Finalise an interim report on EU road safety policy taking stock and setting the agenda for next five years; the report is expected to be published in May 2015.

- Continued work on the new analysis of serious road traffic injuries. The Commission intends to set shortly a new target for the reduction of serious road injuries and define a strategy to meet this target.

- A review of the EU framework on infrastructure safety management drivers; a Commission proposal is expected to be adopted by end of 2016.

More information on:

= Factsheet on Road safety in the EU;

= Commission's road safety work and EU road safety statistics: http://ec.europa.eu/roadsafety

Preliminary country by country statistics on road deaths for 2014[1]

Notes:

1. The 2014 figures are based on provisional data; there might be minor changes in the final data for individual countries.

2. Estimation based on data from January to September

3. Evolution of fatalities 2010- 2013

Reference: European Commission, Press release “How safe are your roads? Commission road safety statistics show small improvement for 2014”, Brussels, 24 March 2015. In:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4656_en.htm.