Road fatalities across the European Union (EU) decreased by 9% in 2012, with figures published by the Commission recording the lowest number of people killed in road traffic accidents since the first data were collected.

Country by country statistics show the number of road deaths still varies greatly across the EU. The countries with the lowest number of deaths remain the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, reporting around 30 fatalities per million inhabitants.

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The EC noted compared to the disappointing figures of 2011, when progress in cutting road deaths fell to 2%, the reduction of 9% in 2012 means Member States are back on track towards the objective of halving road deaths between 2010 and 2020. In order to reach this goal, an average reduction of around 7% is needed.

“2012 was a landmark year for European road safety, with the lowest ever number of road deaths recorded,” said EC vice-president Siim Kallas. “A 9% decrease means that 3,000 lives were saved last year.

“It is hugely encouraging to see these kinds of results. Still 75 people die on Europe’s roads every day, so there is no room for complacency. We have ambitious goals to cut EU road deaths in half by 2020 and we need to keep up this momentum to get there.

“Road deaths are only the tip of the iceberg. For every death on Europe’s roads there are ten serious injuries such as damage to the brain or spinal cord. We need a strategy to bring down the number of serious road injuries everywhere in the EU.”

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The most worrying feature of the road safety statistics for 2011 was a high increase in the number of killed vulnerable users such as pedestrians, motorcyclists and elderly people, in spite of an overall reduction of road fatalities. 

Current estimates indicate every year around 250,000 people are seriously injured in road accidents in the EU – compared to the 28,000 road fatalities in 2012.

While the number of road deaths has decreased by 43% during the last decade, the number of seriously injured people dropped by only 36%.

The most common serious road injuries are head and brain injuries, followed by damage to the legs and spine.