Brazil’s poor road safety is under the spotlight as new data reveals an increase in fatal crashes during 2019. The Brazilian national transport confederation CNT shows that there were 1.2% more fatal crashes on Federal roads in 2019 than in 2018. During 2019 there were 5,332 road deaths, and increase of 63 from 2018. While the increase is comparatively small, there is concern as the seven previous years have seen a continuous decline in road fatalities.
The country has had some successes in reducing road deaths in recent years. There was a 39.2% cut in road deaths from 2012-2018. This is why the current data for 2019 is of concern.
Driver distraction was the biggest single factor in crashes involving road deaths, linked to 37.1% of fatal incidents in 2019. Speeding was linked to 8.9% of the road deaths, with general driving offences a factor in 12% of instances. Of note is that DUI offences were linked to just 8% of the fatal crashes.
According to CNT’s data, there was a 3.3% climb in the number of crashes featuring serious injuries or deaths, reaching 55,756 for 2019. However, there was a 2.6% drop in the total number of road crashes in Brazil in 2019 compared with 2018.
