According to the National Institute of Statistics, Romania remains at the top of the list of countries with the highest number of road accidents, with more than 76 accidents per day last year (28,000 per year), killing 4 Romanians every day. , in consultation with HotNews .US

At European level, Sweden has the safest roads (18 deaths per million inhabitants), while Romania (93/million) reported the highest rate in 2021, the year for which we have aggregate EU-level figures. The number of deaths in Romania is more than twice the European average (the EU average was 44 deaths per million inhabitants)

According to Eurostat data, in addition to Sweden, 8 other member states (Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal) recorded the lowest number of deaths due to accidents.

At EU level, just over half of road deaths occur on rural roads, compared to 40% in cities and 8% on motorways. Among all road fatalities, people who were in cars (drivers and passengers) accounted for 43%, pedestrians – 20%, participants of two-wheeled vehicles (motorcycles and mopeds) – 18% and cyclists – 10% of all fatalities.

In urban areas, the picture is very different: pedestrians (37%) make up the majority of victims.

Three out of four road deaths are men (77%). Older people (65+) account for more than a quarter (28%) of all deaths, although proportionately more young people die on the roads. Around 12% of those killed on EU roads were between the ages of 18 and 24, although this age group represents only 7% of the EU population. Therefore, young people are more likely to get into fatal road accidents.

How we live in Romania

The ranking of the largest number of road accidents by district looks like the graph below.

As for the number of deaths due to accidents, the situation has changed somewhat.

During 2022, 28,010 road accidents with personal injuries were registered, as a result of which 36,218 people were injured, of which 4.5% were fatal. In 2022, compared to 2021, traffic risk for all types of injury crashes will increase, according to their nature and mode of occurrence, the INS said.

The number of road accidents involving one vehicle increased the most, by 10.2%.

The share of traffic accidents with injuries in populated areas (excluding highways) was 83.8% of the total number of road accidents, the share with fatalities and injuries was 79.4% of the total number of victims.

In 2022, out of 3,305 pedestrians and drivers of road vehicles in a state of alcohol intoxication, who were involved in road accidents with bodily injuries, 1,182, or 35.8%, respectively, were drivers of passenger cars.

After production time, the highest proportions of accidents were recorded in August (10.3% of the total number of accidents), July (10.2%) and June (9.9%).

According to lighting conditions, 73.0% of the total number of road accidents occurred during the day, and according to the condition of the road surface, 87.0% of road accidents occurred on dry roads.

See the INS study on road accidents in Romania here

Photo credit: LCVA / Dreamstime.com