New FIA road safety statistics

Publication date: 18 May 2009

The FIA European Bureau has collected updated figures on road safety for 2008. Baltic countries have made impressive gains, whilst the EU's newest members slipped back. We examine efforts to reduce road fatalities.

The Baltic countries showed remarkable gains in reducing road fatalities in 2008 compared to 2007. According to the FIA European Bureau's collection of Europe-wide statistics, the three Baltic states led Europe. Lithuania was first cutting road deaths to 495 in 2008 compared to 739 in 2007. That is a reduction of 33%. Just behind Lithuania was Estonia with a reduction of 32% over 2007 (or 133 road fatalities compared to 196 in 2008). Latvia reduced fatalities by 23% pushing them down to 323 from 419.

“We have had several campaigns by the Latvian road safety directorate. People are more aware. Another element are the tough fines,” said Inge Aleksejeva from Latvian club LAF. She noted that the number of car trips and drivers may have decreased because of the difficult economic situation. “We also hope to do better next year too,” said Aleksejeva.

But will the Baltic countries continue to do well in the near future? “I see that people are becoming more and more responsible for their lives and their family members lives. Thanks to road safety campaigns, changing society as well as advertisements, more people are using seat seat-belts, safety mechanisms for  children and reflective clothing,” said Egle Kesteniene from Lithuanian club LAS. She points to a fundamental change in driving behavior, but notes that 2009 figures may be indicating a slowdown in the percentage reduction of fatalities.

Changing road users' behaviour and mentality

“The most important thing is to change road users' behaviour and their mentality first. For this we need more education campaigns using more effective measures and tools. It concerns all road users groups,” she said. Kesteniene also points to the need for making figures on road deaths and accidents more comparable between countries. “I see the need for the statistical harmonization with other countries,” she said. “What we need is more exchange of experience with other countries,” said Kesteniene. Lithuania counts a death occurring within one month of an accident as a road death. Some countries, notably Italy, have much shorter cut-off periods when counting road fatalities.

Statistical harmonization was also underlined by the FIA's Verona workshop on road safety in November 2008. Benchmarking the road safety performance of the EU’s 27 member states across the different road safety pillars (human behavior, vehicle performance and the road infrastructure) was stressed alongside effective stakeholder alliances, increased deployment of eSafety technologies and efficient enforcement of traffic laws were all considered key elements of any future policy.

European Road Safety Action Program

The Verona workshop, taking place during the November 2008 Verona International Road Safety Exhibition, allowed FIA clubs to brainstorm about ways forward for road safety. This is especially important as the EU is set to come up with a new European Road Safety Action Program for 2011-2020. Well ahead of final adoption, scheduled for late in 2009 or early 2010. The FIA has also been warning decision-makers that Europe needs to update policy if it wants to keep pushing down road fatalities and injuries. In Verona, Miguel Nadal, Director of the RACC Foundation, Spain, also stressed the importance of ambitious targets for death and injury reduction in any future road safety policy.

The Netherlands was very representative of countries that have already made impressive gains. Those low hanging fruit are now gone according to Ad Vonk from Dutch club ANWB. A reduction of 1% in 2008 fatalities over 2007 brought the total number down to 702 compared to 709 road deaths in 2007. “That was a small reduction. We took the low hanging fruit years ago. It takes much more to reduce fatalities even further,” said Vonk. “We will do better next year. The target for 2020 is 580 deaths.”

Whilst Vonk is generally supportive of statistical harmonization he points out that the statistical basis used to count a fatality as a road death does not alter anything for the family of the victims. “You also need to know the situation over a longer period of time,” he said. Vonk would like to see emphasis on improving infrastructure as well as making it much more clear and intuitive for drivers as to how fast they are allowed to travel. “Roundabouts are a good way to reduce fatalities and injuries,” said Vonk.

Low-hanging fruit

Norway is also a country that has grabbed the low-hanging fruit in terms of road safety. Figures for 2008, though, show an increase of 10.7% in the number of road fatalities over 2007 – up to 258 from 233. “We generally have very low figures – there was an increase of around 25 fatalities,” said Egil Otter from Norwegian club NAF. Otter points to several very bad accidents in the first part of 2008. “The second half of the year was much better and there has been a very positive trend so far in 2009.” Nonetheless, he remains worried about the number of accidents among young drivers between 18 and 24.

Norway, unlike other countries in Europe, is in the enviable position of not having foreign debt. Otter explains that this has allowed the government to switch to infrastructure improvements to boost road safety. “This is our main concern. The recession has made the government invest in infrastructure so as to improve traffic safety. Thanks to recession something good is happening,” Otter concludes.

The FIA European Bureau is currently busy drawing up a comprehensive road safety policy for beyond 2010 to be addressed in the first instance to the European Commission. Olivier Lenz from the European Bureau stresses the need for statistical harmonization if Europe wants a more effective strategy on road safety. The EU is also working on such harmonized statistics via its CARE database.

Rear end of the table

At the rear end of the table were Croatia (+7.3%), Romania and Malta (+7%) and Bulgaria (+5.2%).  Are these countries not taking their commitment to road safety seriously? “The problem with some Central European countries is that they have experienced a rapid increase in traffic but may not yet have good vehicles, infrastructure or driving habits. Bulgaria and Romania have bad results,” said Lenz. “They need to increase their efforts significantly if they want to stop the bloodshed on their roads,” he warned.