2020 EU road death figures
Today, on the occasion of the EU Road Safety Results Conference, the European Commission has published preliminary figures on road fatalities for the year 2020 .
Sadly, an estimated 18.800 people were killed in a road crash in the EU last year. Almost 4.000 less than 2019, but not enough to reach the main target to bring this number down to #VisionZero. Based on these preliminary figures, 18 Member States registered their lowest ever number of road fatalities in 2020. EU-wide, deaths fell by an average of 17% compared to 2019.
Over a longer timeline, the number of deaths on Europe’s roads fell by 36% between 2010 and 2020, below the EU target of 50%.
However, with 42 road deaths per 1 million inhabitants, the EU remains the continent with the safest roads in the world. As a comparison, the world average lies at more than 180.
Lower traffic volumes, as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, had a clear, though unmeasurable, impact on the number of road fatalities. In this period cycling has experienced a significant rise in popularity and many cities around the world (temporarily) reallocated road space to cyclists and pedestrians. This encouraging development can have a significant positive impact on air quality and climate change, and at the same time creates new road safety challenges.
EU-wide, around 70% of road fatalities in urban areas involve vulnerable road users which includes pedestrians, motorcyclist and cyclists. Tackling road safety in cities is therefore a key area of focus and the EU Commission wants to ensure that road safety is taken into account at all stages of urban mobility planning.