In 2016 there were 600 fewer fatalities than in 2015 and 6,000 fewer fatalities than in 2010.
There are huge differences between member-countries. For example, in Sweden there were 27 fatalities per one million inhabitants, in Great Britain there were 28 fatalities, and in the Netherlands 33. On the other hand, in Bulgaria there were 99 fatalities per one million inhabitants, in Romania 97 and in Latvia 80.
In Croatia, 73 people were killed in road accidents while the EU average is 50. The 2016 statistics indicate a 12% drop from 2015, when the number of road fatalities in Croatia was 82.
In 2010, 99 people were killed in road accidents in Croatia, and since then the number of fatalities has dropped by 28 percent.
In 2016, on average only about 8% of road fatalities occurred on motorways; 37% occurred in urban areas and most (55%) occurred on rural roads, the European Commission said.
Forty-percent of the road fatalities were vehicle occupants, 21% were pedestrians and 8% were cyclists.
"Last year marked a turning point in reducing road fatalities: after two years of stagnation, the number of those who lost their lives on the roads was reduced by 2%. 25,500 people were killed in 2016, 600 fewer than in 2015 and 6,000 fewer than in 2010. This represents a 19% reduction over the last six years," says the EC.
The number of people seriously injured in road accidents is estimated at 135,000.
In 2010 the EC set the goal of halving the number of road fatalities by 2020.
The global number of road fatalities per one million inhabitants is 174.
''Today's statistics are an improvement and something positive to build on. But it's not the figures that worry me the most – it's the lives lost, and the families left behind. Just today we will lose another 70 lives on EU roads and five-times as many will sustain serious injuries! I'm inviting all stakeholders to step up their efforts so we can meet the objective of halving the number of road deaths between 2010 and 2020," Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said.