The European Commission has released preliminary figures on road fatalities for 2022, revealing that approximately 20,600 people lost their lives in road accidents last year, marking a 3%
increase compared to 2021 as traffic levels recovered post-pandemic. However, compared with the pre-pandemic year 2019, there were 2,000 fewer fatalities, representing a 10% decrease. The EU and UN target is to halve the number of road deaths by 2030.
While road deaths rose by 3% across the EU, gains achieved during the COVID-19 period have not been lost, as there was a 17% decrease in fatalities between 2019 and 2020. The number of deaths in 2022 fell by 10% compared to 2019. However, progress has been uneven across the Member States. Countries such as Lithuania and Poland reported the largest decreases, of more than 30%, while countries like Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden saw stable or rising fatalities in the last three years.
The safest roads in the EU were in Sweden (21 deaths per one million inhabitants) and Denmark (26/million), while Romania (86/million) and Bulgaria (78/million) reported the highest rates in 2022. The EU average was 46 road deaths per million inhabitants.
According to available data for 2021, 52% of road traffic fatalities occurred on rural roads, 39% in urban areas, and 9% on motorways. Men accounted for 78% of all road deaths. Car occupants, including drivers and passengers, accounted for 45% of all road deaths, while pedestrians accounted for 18%, users of powered two-wheelers (motorbikes and mopeds) accounted for 19%, and cyclists accounted for 9%. However, within urban areas, vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, and users of powered two-wheelers represented just under 70% of total fatalities. Urban road user fatalities occurred mainly in crashes involving cars and trucks, highlighting the need to improve the protection of vulnerable road users.
While the increased share of cycling in the mobility mix in many Member States is welcome, there is a concerning trend in the number of cyclists killed on EU roads. Cycling is the only road user group not to see a significant drop in fatalities over the last decade, primarily due to a persistent lack of well-equipped infrastructure. In 2022, preliminary figures from France showed a 30% increase in cycling fatalities compared to 2019.
In 2018, the EU set a 50% reduction target for road deaths, including serious injuries, by 2030. This was part of the Commission's Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety and EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030, which aimed to reach zero road deaths by 2050 (‘Vision Zero'). Road safety has been a crucial element of recent EU mobility policy initiatives, such as the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the Commission's proposal for a revision of the TEN-T regulation, and the Urban Mobility Framework.
The EU is leading the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, which the UN proclaimed for 2021-2030 in August 2020. The Commission plans to present a package of proposals addressing road safety from various angles to make European roads even safer in the coming weeks. Photo by Marc Ryckaert MJJR, Wikimedia commons.