The improvement in road safety levels in European countries varies considerably for the 2010-2020 period. The Netherlands made the least progress with reducing road casualty rates, with the UK in second place in lack of progress.
The report produced by the European Transport Safety Council highlights the achievements in road safety seen across 32 nations in Europe during 2010-2020.
Of note is the reduced casualty rates for 2020 compared with 2020. The figure of 18,844 road deaths for 2020 was 37% lower than the figure for 2010. This did fall short of the intended 50% reduction in road deaths that had been hoped for during the 10-year period however.
Of note also was that the current COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major decrease in travel, resulting in a 17% drop in road deaths last year in the EU.
Greece is the winner of the 2021 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award. The country has made an impressive long-term performance in improving road safety. Greece was the only EU Member State to reach the road death reduction target with a decrease of 54% over the decade to 2020. In sharp contrast, road deaths in the Netherlands fell by just 5% and just 14% in the UK for the 2010-2020 period.
The 15th Road Safety Performance Index report is an official ranking of EU progress on road safety, published by The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), which looks back at the last 10 years of EU and national action on road safety, and ahead to the next 10 years.
Antonio Avenoso, executive director of ETSC said: “Road safety is, in the end, a public health issue. Covid has killed 3.5 million people worldwide. Over the last decade, at least 13 million have died on the world’s roads. The extraordinary and necessary global response to the Covid pandemic has shown how policymakers and society as a whole can act when most people are working towards a common goal. Can we apply the same focus to the challenges of road safety?”.
According to official figures to date, 1,580 people died on the UK’s roads in 2020. Although this was a decrease compared to the previous year and decade, the changes should be interpreted with caution due to the decrease in traffic volumes during the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK was far from achieving the average levels of the EU countries and further from the target signed up to by the UK government 10 years ago.
UK data for 2020 are the provisional total for Great Britain for the year ending June 2020 combined with the total for Northern Ireland for the calendar year 2020
Commenting on the report, David Davies, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: “It was a decade of missed opportunities. The UK government did not make road safety a priority, refused to set national casualty reduction targets and failed to provide the comprehensive framework to deliver real change.”
“There are indications of a new approach from the UK government, recognising the importance of safety to wider agendas such as improving public health, environmental sustainability and relieving pressure on emergency services. Incorporating the equivalent of the revised EU General Safety Regulation for new cars and lorries into UK law will be an important test.”
