Today the European Commission will host the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards. These awards recognise the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter's community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe.
Over 100 initiatives were nominated for this prestigious accolade, with 15 projects being shortlisted. They are:
- Centrum Bezpieczeństwa Ruchu Drogowego sp. z o.o., Poland: Bezpieczna Autostrada / Safe Motorway – Social Campaign;
- Zavod Reševalni pas, Slovenia: Rescue lane in case of traffic jams on highways;
- Echopix s.r.o., Czechia: Safety of seniors in transport
- AECA-ITV, Spain: If you care about safety, get a roadworthiness test done;
- Initiative für sichere Straßen GmbH, Germany: EDDA+ Hazard Score Map;
- Riksförbundet M Sverige, Sweden: M Connect - The app that rewards smart drivers;
- Preventiedienst Stad Leuven, Belgium: Vrkeer, a virtual reality serious game;
- ANWB Streetwise, the Netherlands: De verkeersgame (traffic game);
- Fondation VINCI Autoroutes, France : Les jeunes au volant,
- Platforma VIZE 0 (The Vision 0 Platform), Czechia: Vision Zero for young drivers;
- HUMDA, Hungary: HUMDA Road Safety - safety comes first;
- Acciona Energia, Spain: Drive Safe Programme,;
- CTT Correios de Portugal, Portugal: CTT Road Safety Programme 2015 – 2021;
- Magánvállalkozók Nemzeti Fuvarozó Ipartestülete NiT Hungary, Hungary: With steady hands on five axles, a competition seeking the best Hungarian truck driver!;
- Mjam, Austria: Mjam Rider Safety.
The awards will be granted to the best project in each of the in four award categories: best examples of the “safe system approach; best road safety project targeting young people; best road safety technology initiative; and best road safety project for professional drivers, plus the “Jacques Barrot” audience choice award.
More information on the shortlisted projects.
Final 2021 statistics on road fatalities
The Commission is today publishing the final figures on road fatalities for 2021, following the publication of the preliminary data in March 2022. These figures show that an estimated 19 900 people were killed on EU roads last year, a 6% increase in relation to 2020. This followed an unprecedented annual fall of 17% between 2019 and 2020. The picture over the last two years has been strongly influenced by the traffic levels in each country which were considerably lower during the pandemic. For some Member States, the post-lockdown increase in road fatalities is so significant that it calls for deeper analysis and urgent action.
EU-wide, there were 45 road deaths per million inhabitants in 2021. The fatality rate ranges from 20/million in Sweden and 22/million in Denmark to 81/million in Bulgaria and 92/million in Romania (This ranking excludes countries with fewer than 100 fatalities per year).
Estimates for 2022
Preliminary figures for the first seven months of 2022 indicate the number of road deaths has increased again, by more than 10% on average, compared with 2021. Some Member States have seen significantly larger rises. The EU-wide estimate for road deaths in 2022 to date is still below that of the pre-pandemic year 2019, though monthly fluctuations make an accurate prediction for the entire year difficult. The current pace of change is insufficient to meet the EU’s target of halving the number of deaths by 2030.
To this end, the Commission is working closely with Member States to ensure that they implement a holistic safe-system approach – widely accepted as the best means to tackling road safety - as part of their national road safety strategies for the decade to 2030.
The Commission has also published a series of reports as part of its European Road Safety Observatory, providing detailed data and analysis on a range of road safety topics such as children, seniors, novice drivers, cyclists, drink-driving, personal mobility devices, driver distraction and seat-belt wearing.
Background
The European Road Safety Charter, initiated in 2004 by the European Commission, is the largest civil society platform on road safety. More than 3 500 public and private entities (companies of all types and sizes, automobile clubs, associations, schools, local authorities and others) have committed to the Charter. The Charter invites members to make a commitment, pledging to take a specific measurable action within their area of responsibilities. Since 2006, the Excellence in Road Safety Awards have been presented to organisations that have carried out a particularly interesting and effective road safety initiative.
The European Commission is working to deliver its EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030 to halve the number of fatalities and serious injuries on European roads by 2030, as a milestone on the way to ‘Vision Zero’ – zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050.
For More Information
Commission's road safety work and EU road safety statistics and analysis
2021 statistics on road deaths
|
|
Absolute number |
Rate per million population |
% change 2021 in relation to: |
||||
|
|
2021 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
Average 2017-19 |
|
EU-27 |
19 900 |
51 |
42 |
45 |
6% |
-13% |
-14% |
|
Belgium |
516 |
56 |
43 |
45 |
3% |
-20% |
-17% |
|
Bulgaria |
561 |
90 |
67 |
81 |
21% |
-11% |
-12% |
|
Czechia |
532 |
58 |
48 |
50 |
3% |
-14% |
-14% |
|
Denmark |
130 |
34 |
28 |
22 |
-20% |
-35% |
-28% |
|
Germany |
2 562 |
37 |
33 |
31 |
-6% |
-16% |
-19% |
|
Estonia |
55 |
39 |
44 |
41 |
-7% |
6% |
-1% |
|
Ireland |
137 |
29 |
30 |
27 |
-7% |
-2% |
-5% |
|
Greece |
608 |
64 |
54 |
57 |
4% |
-12% |
-14% |
|
Spain |
1 533 |
37 |
29 |
32 |
12% |
-13% |
-15% |
|
France |
2 944 |
50 |
39 |
45 |
16% |
-9% |
-11% |
|
Croatia |
292 |
73 |
58 |
72 |
23% |
-2% |
-7% |
|
Italy |
2 875 |
53 |
40 |
49 |
20% |
-9% |
-13% |
|
Cyprus |
45 |
59 |
54 |
50 |
-6% |
-13% |
-12% |
|
Latvia |
147 |
69 |
73 |
78 |
6% |
11% |
6% |
|
Lithuania |
148 |
67 |
63 |
53 |
-15% |
-20% |
-19% |
|
Luxembourg |
24 |
36 |
42 |
38 |
-8% |
9% |
-13% |
|
Hungary |
544 |
62 |
47 |
56 |
18% |
-10% |
-12% |
|
Malta |
9 |
32 |
21 |
17 |
-18% |
-44% |
-49% |
|
Netherlands |
509 |
34 |
30 |
29 |
-1% |
-13% |
-11% |
|
Austria |
362 |
47 |
39 |
41 |
5% |
-13% |
-12% |
|
Poland |
2 245 |
77 |
66 |
59 |
-10% |
-23% |
-22% |
|
Portugal |
557 |
67 |
52 |
54 |
4% |
-19% |
-16% |
|
Romania |
1 765 |
96 |
85 |
92 |
7% |
-5% |
-7% |
|
Slovenia |
114 |
49 |
38 |
54 |
43% |
12% |
15% |
|
Slovakia |
247 |
50 |
45 |
45 |
0% |
-9% |
-8% |
|
Finland |
225 |
38 |
40 |
41 |
1% |
7% |
-2% |
|
Sweden |
210 |
22 |
20 |
20 |
3% |
-5% |
-21% |
|
Switzerland |
200 |
22 |
26 |
23 |
-12% |
7% |
-8% |
|
Norway |
80 |
20 |
17 |
15 |
-14% |
-26% |
-25% |
|
Iceland |
9 |
17 |
22 |
24 |
13% |
50% |
-33% |
|
Liechtenstein |
0 |
0 |
26 |
0 |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Source: CARE (Community Road Accident) database. Figures are generally those as reported by police. Population data are from Eurostat. Data for 2021 are compared with three time-periods: 2020 (the previous year), 2019 (the baseline year for the target of 50% fewer deaths by 2030) and the average of 2017-19 (to take account of fluctuations in small countries). The percentage changes in the table are based on the absolute number of fatalities, not the rate per million inhabitants. Provisional figures IE (2018-2021), FI (2021). In the NL, the number of deaths registered by the police is under-reported and equates to around 85-90% of the total number published nationally (582 in 2021). There was one road fatality in Liechtenstein in 2020 and zero in 2019 and 2021.
Details
- Publication date
- 17 October 2022
- Author
- Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport