Road death toll: Fewer fatalities in Romania while number grows elsewhere in Europe

Romania had slightly fewer road deaths last year than in 2010, but is still among of the countries with the highest death tolls from road accidents in the EU, according to a recent report from the European Commission. Last year, the number of fatalities per million people was of 94 for Romania, down from 111 a year ago but significantly higher than the EU average of 61. This means that around 1,900 Romanians died on the road last year.

"These figures are a wake-up call. This is the slowest decrease in road deaths in a decade. 85 people still die on Europe's roads every day. This is unacceptable. We will need to sharply intensify efforts at EU and national levels to reach our goal of cutting road fatalities in half again by 2020. I am writing to ministers in all Member States to ask for information about national road safety enforcement plans for 2012,” said EC Vice-President for transport Siim Kallas. The Union has made progress in cutting road fatalities in recent years, with a slow down last year, after almost halving the rate of road deaths from 2001 to 2010, to 62. But the situation isn't rosy everywhere. Some EU member states, like Germany and Sweden, who have very strong safety records, now show a significant increase in deaths. The number of road deaths was up 10 percent in Germany, at 49 fatalities per one million inhabitants. In other countries, like Poland and Belgium – already lagging behind in road safety – the number of deaths went up. The increase in Poland was 7 percent, to 109 deaths per one million inhabitants. The highest increase rate was in Estonia, up 29 percent in road death toll. While fatalities for cars, pedestrians, bicycles and mopeds have all decreased since 2001, this is not the case for motorcycles in the EU. In Romania, 60 motorcycle drivers died in 2010, a rate of three deaths per one million inhabitants, compared to 16 in Italy, 11 in France, 7 in the UK and 8 in Germany. editor@romania-insider.com