In the first year of the enforcement of the amended law on traffic safety, accidents have dropped 14.5% but the number of those with fatalities has gone up 1.7%, the Police Directorate said on Thursday.

Police have recorded 13.7% fewer accidents with fatalities, 14.9% fewer accidents with material damage, 6% fewer seriously injured persons and 17.1% fewer lightly injured persons.

Police say the rise in the number of fatalities, five more than in the previous period, is due to 18 accidents with more fatalities, i.e. 13 with two, four with three and one with four.

In said one-year period, repeat offenders have caused 8.1% of accidents with fatalities, while the largest number of such accidents has been caused by drivers who are not frequent traffic offenders.

In said period, 30 vehicles have been confiscated from drivers who have been sentenced for the gravest offences at least twice in three years.