European community for mobility management

Between 2001 and 2009 Latvia, Spain, Portugal and Estonia achieved the greatest reductions in deaths, all above 50%, closely followed by France and Lithuania. There is no doubt that setting the ambitious EU-wide goal of halving road deaths between 2001 and 2010 was crucial in contributing to the reductions achieved.. Building on this success, it is now time to adopt new targets and measures for 2020 in the 4th EU Road Safety Action Programme, due for adoption by the European Commission this July.

These and other results from the latest European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) Road Safety PIN Report: Road Safety 2010 Target in Sight - Making up for lost time have been published on the PIN website. 

2009 saw a record breaking improvement in road safety with deaths cut by 11% compared to 2008. Slovakia (36%), Lithuania (26%), Denmark (25%) and Estonia (24%) achieved the best reductions in 2009. For the first time ever the EU10 achieved a better year-to-year reduction (18%) than the EU15 (8%) in 2009.

As many as 34,900 people were killed in road collisions in 2009 in the EU27, still far more than the target of 27,000 which the EU set for 2010. Still, road deaths have been cut by 36% in the EU27 between 2001 and 2009. The EU15 alone, for whom the EU 2010 target was originally set, achieved an impressive 42%.

These latest PIN country rankings come at a critical time when the European Commission is expected to soon adopt new road safety targets for 2020. The 2001 EU target gave a boost to combined efforts at both the national and EU levels. As a result, reductions in the number of deaths have been much higher in 2001-2009 than in the three preceding decades.

You can download the Press Release and ETSC 4th Road Safety PIN Report 2010 at www.etsc.eu/PIN-publications.

Source: Road Safety PIN press release