Car: Fatal traffic accidents have decreased in Greece
Norway, the safest country in the world in 2021 in terms of fatal traffic accidents
New international road safety data has been revealed by the OECD International Transport Forum. Within Europe, road traffic deaths in 2021 were 0.1% higher than the 2017-2019 average. Over the same period in the US, deaths from traffic accidents increased by 16%, worrying road safety chiefs.
The latest report draws data from 2021 and the first half of 2022, as economies have gradually returned from successive Covid-19 lockdowns. A more accurate comparable measure was deaths per billion vehicle kilometers traveled. There are extremely large variations for both 2020 and 2021. In Norway, for example, there were 1.8 road deaths per billion km driven in 2021, compared to 9.9 road deaths in the Czech Republic. In 2020, the Czech Republic, South Korea and the USA recorded more than eight traffic accidents per billion kilometers.
Another element of the report is a comparison of road traffic deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, which again shows Norway as the safest country in Europe with 1.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while Colombia appears to have the most dangerous roads with 14.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by the USA with 12.9 deaths.
Greece, according to the report, seems to have improved, as the deaths from road accidents in 2021 were 613 when the average of the time period 2017-2019 in our country was 706 deaths. In this table, Iceland had 9 deaths in 2021, compared to the 2017-2019 average of 13, while Germany had 2,562 deaths in 2021, compared to 3,167 in the 2017-2019 period.
Between 2010-19 cycling deaths increased in 15 of the 34 countries surveyed: by 130% in Argentina, by 90% in Israel and by 60% in Ireland. E-bike riders appear to be at particularly high risk, with 52% of deaths in Israel, 47% in Belgium, 41% in Switzerland and 35% in Germany, despite representing a small share of the overall cycling community.
RES