Croatia has a relatively old vehicle fleet in all vehicle categories, with the average age of passenger cars at 12.6 years, motorcycles and mopeds at 12.5 years and tractors at over 30 years old, according to data from the Croatian Centre for Vehicles.

Last year, 79,935 used passenger cars and 61,745 new ones were registered, as imports of used vehicles continued to grow, especially after the country joined the European Union.

The statistics showed that as many as 68.4 percent of cars were more than a decade old.

In other categories, buses were on average 11.7 years old, trucks 11.4 years and trailers 19.1 years old.

The Centre for Vehicles noted that a vehicle’s age affects its roadworthiness. “Over 400,000 vehicles registered in 2018 did not have any of the modern braking systems installed (ABS or ABS+ESAP), which can greatly affect road safety,” it said.

Last year, 431,538 vehicles were found to be technically faulty and were ordered off the road until the faults and shortcomings identified were removed.

The European Commission has set a goal to reduce the number of road fatalities by 50 percent over the next decade.

The Centre for Vehicles says that this goal can be achieved only through closer cooperation between all road safety stakeholders, better control and targeted financing of measures.