Since 2013, all eight Croatian national parks have recorded 30,145,000 visitors, and in that period there have been 19 accidents with fatalities, mainly due to carelessness on the part of visitors.

Apart from fatalities resulting from tragic events, over the last ten years the national parks have also reported eight deaths of visitors due to their deteriorated health.

It can be said that accidents are rare having in mind the number of people visiting the parks.

Over 2.65 million visitors this year

So far this year, 2,655,000 tourists have visited the national parks.

The issue of personal safety has been raised following the tragic death of an Israeli tourist in the Plitvice Lake National Park in late August. A 73-year-old woman fell off a cliff and died. The cliff is outside the demarcation lines where tourists can move.

The Plitvice Lakes is the most visited park. Nearly 1.2 million people visited the place from 1 January to mid-September this year.

Krka ranks second, with 830,871 visitors logged. In this park in southern Croatia, six visitors have died over the last 10 years. The most common cause was drowning, which prompted the park management to prohibit swimming at the Skradinski Buk Waterfall.

Paklenica, on the southern slopes of Mount Velebit, has reported no fatalities in the last two years. From 2013 to 2020, five climbers were killed due to their negligence and carelessness, four visitors died from a stroke and a hearth attack, and one person committed suicide.

Three national parks — Risnjak, Mljet and Northern Velebit — have had no death cases in the last 10 years.

Dehydration and risks of orthopedic injuries due to negligence and ignorance of visitors

All eight parks reported dozens of interventions annually, mostly because exhausted visitors wearing unsuitable clothes and footwear needed the assistance of rescue teams due to injuries, such as sprains or bone fractures, or they got lost in the area. Rescue teams were also called in because of insect bites or dehydration.

In order to boost the safety of visitors, the parks have put strict safety protocols in place, paying attention to prevention and awareness raising.

They also cooperate with the Civil Protection Directorate, the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, law enforcement authorities and emergency services.