The UK’s road network continues to have the best safety record in Europe, according to new research.
The European Commission’s 2018 road safety statistics report shows the UK had fewer road deaths per million inhabitants than any other country in the European Union (EU). However, the average across all member nations decreased by just 1% last year, with more than 25,000 people killed on European roads.
That suggests the EU is a long way short of meeting the Commission’s aim of halving the number of road deaths from 2010 by 2020, as well as its long-term goal of close to zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050.
“This is now the fifth year in a row that hardly any progress has been made,” said Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).
“EU member states will have to take bold action: increasing levels of enforcement, taking meaningful steps to address speeding, drink/drug driving and distraction and ensuring that vulnerable road users get the safe infrastructure they need, particularly in our towns and cities.”
The report follows the recent passing of legislation that will require all new cars sold in the EU from 2022 to be fitted with a range of active safety systems, including intelligent speed limiters, in a bid to improve safety. New versions of existing models will need to incorporate the technology by 2024. The announcement has sparked debate in the industry over whether drivers are becoming over-reliant on electronic aids.
Volvo pre-empted the ruling last month by announcing that all of its new cars from 2020 will be limited to a 112mph top speed.
According to the Commission's report, there were 28 road deaths per million inhabitants in the UK last year. Denmark (30) and the Republic of Ireland (31) were close behind. Romania had the highest fatality rate, with 96 deaths per million inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria (88), Latvia (78) and Croatia (77). Slovenia made the biggest reduction from 2017, with 13% fewer fatalities.
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The fear factor....
On any given daily grind to and from any journey, how often have you been passed by some idiot inventing their own road rules?, or, the undertakers, the one who will pass you on a Motorway, your in lane two or three and they pass in one or two, this apparently in the US isn’t illegal, generally it’s the ones we say...how did they pass th test?!, penalty for bad driving isn’t extreme enough, instead of fines points and driving courses they should take the offenders car for a minimum of three months and ban the driver for the same period, get caught again...double it and so on, I don’t care what impact it has on their life, if they weren’t breaking the law their life would be fine.......
@ jagdavey
....speed doesnt kill, otherwise everyone would die upon reaching 500 mph in an aircraft.
Coming to an abrupt halt sometimes kills, and lack of driving ability or drink/drugs/mobile phones and lack of attention....they kill!
Apart from having a man walking in front of every vehicle with a red flag, there will always be deaths from moving faster than our legs can take us.....its just a price we all have to pay.
Driving Dead Slow reduces Deaths.
UK motorway speed limits are the lowest in Europe, hence the lowest number of deaths on the roads. Germany which has unresticted speed limits on some parts of it's Autobahn has more fatalites. We all know that speed kills & driving skills may not be better in the UK but the fact that most of our roads are gridlocked means we are driving slower.