Worrying statistics

Aside from increasing environmental and economic costs, another reason for labelling road transport ‘unsustainable’ is its poor safety record compared to air and rail.

In 2001 the Commission set the ambitious target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50%, from 40,000 to 20,000 deaths a year by 2010. Road safety improvements, campaigns against speeding, drink-driving and driving without a seat belt (the three main reasons for road deaths), have had a discernible effect. France has cut road deaths by 40% over the last five years, Luxembourg by 30% and Portugal, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands by about 25%.

But the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which campaigns on road safety, this week sounded a warning that the positive trend might be going into reverse. Preliminary figures published today (13 September) by the FIA, which it gathered from its member clubs, while they do not represent official EU statistics and are collected on the basis of ongoing research, are disturbing. They unexpectedly show that in many European countries, mortality rates on the roads are once again on the rise.

In Denmark road fatalities have risen by up to 40% in comparison with last year. Road deaths in Sweden have increased by 8% and, in Germany, which was previously a model performer in reducing the number of accidents on its roads, 177 more people died in the first half of 2007 than over the same months in 2006. The new EU member states have also seen a rise in serious accidents. Poland and the Czech Republic experienced a 14% rise in road deaths and in Slovenia the number of deaths rose by 12%. The results of the survey also show that vulnerable road-users - pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, have been worst affected.

Only a few countries, among them Spain and Italy, did not experience this reversal. One possible explanation for the figures is remarkably mild weather in the first half of 2007, which encouraged the use of private cars, motorbikes and scooters. Whatever the cause, the worrying statistics suggest that the progress made in recent years is not being sustained.

Aside from increasing environmental and economic costs, another reason for labelling road transport ‘unsustainable’ is its poor safety record compared to air and rail.