20.06.2023
Decade 2013-2022: 39,553 fewer road fatalities, €104bn of social costs saved
Between 2021 and 2022, in 19 of the 32 countries monitored by the PIN program [the Road Safety Performance Index, established by ETSC in 2006, following the first road safety objectives set by the European Union], deaths on the roads increased. The largest increases were recorded in Malta and Luxembourg, with increases of over 50%. In only 13 countries, on the other hand, road deaths have decreased. The largest reductions, in Slovenia (-25%), Latvia (-23%), Lithuania and Cyprus (both -18%). The final data on Italian road accidents in 2022 will be released in July, with the traditional ACI-Istat press release.
Overall, in 2022 road deaths in the EU-27 increased by 4% compared to 2021. Compared to 2019, however – a year that many countries, including Italy, have chosen as a basis for the targets for the 2020 decade /2030 – deaths on EU-27 roads reduced by 9%. Although this is undoubtedly a positive evolution, it will unfortunately not be sufficient to reach the EU 2030 objective (-50% deaths on the roads), to achieve which, in the last three years, an overall reduction of the 17.2%.
These are some of the most significant data contained in the 17th “Report on the road safety situation”, edited by the “European Transport Safety Council” (ETSC).
In the last decade, only one EU Member State has reduced the number of road fatalities by more than 50%: Lithuania (-60%). Another 13 PIN countries (PL, EE, BE, LV, EL, SI, AT, HR, CZ, CH, CY, FI and DE) achieved a decrease above the EU average (22%), still others progressed significantly minor. Four countries that, in the same decade, recorded an increase in road fatalities: Malta, Israel, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
In the decade 2013-2022, 39,553 road deaths were prevented in the EU, compared to the number that would have occurred if each Member State had continued at the same levels as in 2012. However, a further 40,987 lives could have been saved if the that 6.7% annual reduction, necessary to achieve the objective of reducing road deaths by 50% in 10 years.
The reduction of road deaths in the EU27 in 2022 corresponds to a lower social cost of around 15 billion euros. It is estimated that, in the decade 2013-2022, the lower overall social cost reached 104 billion euros. This figure would have risen to around €212bn if the EU had reduced deaths at a constant annual rate of 6.7%.
According to Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the ETSC, “If things stay like this, Europe will not achieve its goal. The European Union and national governments will have to redouble their efforts to face old and new challenges”. For the ETSC Executive Director “a consequence of the closures due to Covid seems to be the worsening of the behavior of road users, despite the decrease in traffic. Speeding, drink and drug driving, and distracted driving aren’t going away. The application of the rules, therefore, must be intensified, not reduced”.