Despite a marked reduction in the number of traffic fatalities in the past eight years, Croatia is still in the upper part of the European Union rankings when it comes to road traffic fatality figures, according to a report published by the European Commission on Thursday.
In 2010, there were 99 road fatalities per million inhabitants in Croatia and the figure dropped to 77 in 2018, down by 26%. However, for the majority of member states, the road fatality rate was below 60 deaths per million inhabitants in 2018.
“The EU countries with the best road safety results in 2018 were the United Kingdom (28 deaths/million inhabitants), Denmark (30/million), Ireland (31/million), and Sweden (32/million),” the EC reported.
“The countries with a higher-than-average decrease in road deaths from 2017 to 2018 were Slovenia (-13%), Lithuania (-11%), Bulgaria (-9%) and Slovakia and Cyprus (both -8%).
“The countries with the highest fatality rate were Romania (96/million), Bulgaria (88/million), Latvia (78/million) and Croatia (77/million),” says the Commission.
25,100 fatalities in road accidents in EU in 2018
The EC also reports that last year there were around 25,100 fatalities in road accidents in the EU28, which was a decrease of 21% compared to 2010 and of 1% compared to 2017.
“With an average of 49 road deaths per one million inhabitants, this confirms that European roads are by far the safest in the world. But it also shows we are off track to reach our target of halving the number of road deaths by 2020,” the Commission reports.
European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc was quoted as saying that she welcomed any reduction in road traffic fatality figures and that even a single road death is unacceptable.
“We have been assertive and ambitious in tackling road safety, adopting a strategic action plan, concrete actions on vehicle and infrastructure safety, and a policy framework for the next decade. As we continue to work towards ‘Vision Zero’ – zero road deaths by 2050, we are committed to working with all Member States, as well as the Parliament and road safety community, to provide a level of safety that EU citizens demand and deserve,” she said.
