UK’s roads are the safest in Europe
The European Commission’s 2018 Annual Accident Report showed the UK had the fewest road safety fatalities in any EU member state
The UK has the safest roads of any country in the EU, according to the European Commission’s Annual Accident Report.
Statistics for 2018 show that there were just 28 road traffic fatalities for every million UK residents. That’s the lowest number of any EU member state, beating Denmark (30) and Ireland (31).
In total, 25,000 people were killed on the roads in the EU last year, but the total figure decreased by one per cent. Since 2010, the fatality rate has decreased by 21 per cent – an impressive reduction, but still a way off the target the EU set to halve 2010’s number of road deaths by 2020.
Some countries came close, though – road fatalities in Greece fell by 45 per cent over the eight-year period, while Lithuania, Portugal and Slovenia came close with 43 per cent, 35 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.
The most dangerous countries in terms of road fatalities were Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia, with 96, 88 and 78 deaths per million inhabitants respectively. The average across the whole EU was 49 deaths per million inhabitants.
These figures come soon after an announcement that the EU will require a large number of safety systems to be fitted on all vehicles by the year 2022. These include a reversing camera, lane-keeping assistance and, controversially, intelligent speed limiters that will be able to prevent drivers from going over the speed limit. The UK has agreed it will also comply with these regulations after leaving the EU.
