Germany, UK and France report increases in road deaths

Partial data for this year show increases in the numbers of road deaths in the EU’s three most populous countries raising fears that 2014 could mark an end to more than ten years of progress in improving road safety in the EU.

UK government figures released earlier this month show a 3% increase in people killed and a 4% increase in people killed and seriously injured (KSI) with a 1.7% increase in traffic during the year ending June 2014.

David Davies, executive director of ETSC member PACTS, told The Guardian: “It is worrying. We’ve had fairly consistent declines in road casualties – big drops from 2007 to 2010, and then a gentle decline – but now the fear is that after the cutbacks that have taken place in road safety and expertise, the chickens are coming home to roost.”

Data from France show an increase in the number killed of 4% for the first ten months of this year with pedestrians and cyclists sharing a greater burden of the increases in deaths than other road users according to France’s national road safety observatory (ONISR).

Christophe Ramond of ETSC member Association Prévention Routière told Le Figaro that increased use of distracting multimedia applications on mobile devices, notably with the rise of 4G technology, could be partly responsible for the increase.

Germany has reported a 2% increase in the number of people killed between January and September.

See: ETSC Road Safety Performance Index for EU 2001-2013 figures and PACTS road safety manifesto for the 2015 UK parliamentary elections