EU target to reduce serious injuries and road safety statistics 2016 published
25,500 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2016, 600 fewer than in 2015 and 6,000 fewer than in 2010. A further 135,000 people w2ere seriously injured on the road according to Commission's estimates. Following two years of stagnation, 2016 marks the return of a positive downwards trend and over the last six years, road fatalities have been cut by 19%.
This pace is insufficient if the EU is to meet its target of halving road fatalities between 2010 and 2020. According to ETSC analysis, road deaths will now need to fall by 11.5% a year in order to meet the EU target of cutting deaths by half in the decade to 2020.
Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said:
"Today's statistics are an improvement and something positive to build on. But it's not the figures that worry me the most – it's the lives lost, and the families left behind. Just today we will lose another 70 lives on EU roads and five-times as many will sustain serious injuries! I'm inviting all stakeholders to step up their efforts so we can meet the objective of halving the number of road deaths between 2010 and 2020".
New in the statistics: Serious injuries
2016 was the first time the Commission published data on serious road traffic injuries based on a new common definition, from 16 Member States representing 80% of the EU population. Based on this data, the Commission estimates that 135,000 people were seriously injured across the EU. Vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists accounted for a large proportion of seriously injured people.
Road Safety Conference and Informal Council in Malta
On 28 and 29 March, the Commission is holding together with the Maltese Presidency, a Stakeholder and Ministerial Conference in Malta, which Polis is attending. The two-day event brings together road safety experts, stakeholders and policy-makers and is an opportunity to discuss the current state of play in road safety, and the way forward to reduce the number of road deaths and serious injuries.
New: A European target to reduce serious injuries by 50%
The Valetta Declaration on Road Safety has been endorsed during the Ministerial Conference. It includes a new target to reduce serious injuries on Europe's road by 50% between 2020 and 2030.
More information
More information on the Minister meeting and the Valette declration on road safety: https://www.eu2017.mt/en/Events/Pages/Transport-Ministerial-Conference.aspx