The European Union wants to halve the number of road death in the period from 2010 to 2020, however, it seems that it is not managing to achieve this objective, the EC has noted.
"It's sad and hard to accept that almost 70 Europeans die on our roads every day, with many more being seriously injured. The figures published today should be a wake-up call," Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport, said recently.
The number of road fatalities in 2014 decreased by 1% compared with 2013, shows the EC's preliminary report released on March 24.
This follows on an 8% decrease in 2013.
Figures published in the report show that the total number of EU road deaths has decreased by 18.2% since 2010.
Additional efforts are needed in order to achieve the EU strategic target of halving the number of road deaths from 2010 to 2020. Most every-day road safety actions are done at local or national level, for example through the enforcement of road traffic rules, educational campaigns and infrastructure development and maintenance.
The highest number of road deaths was recorded in Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania. Figures for Croatia show that there were 99 road fatalities per one million residents in 2010. That number was reduced by 28% in 2014 to 73 deaths per million residents.
"In 2014, the country specific statistics show that the number of road deaths still vary greatly across the EU. The average EU fatality rate for 2014 is expected to be 51 road deaths per million inhabitants. Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom continue to report the lowest road fatality rates, with less than 30 deaths per million inhabitants. Four countries still report fatality rates above 90 dead per million inhabitants: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania," the European Commission reported on 24 March.
"However the figures published today do show that the total number of EU road deaths has decreased by 18.2% since 2010. Some European countries report a better than average road safety improvement over the years. This is the case of notably Greece, Portugal and Spain. Equally Denmark, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Romania, Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic report a reduction of road deaths above the EU average for 2010-2014."