THE Norway is safer European Union country for road users with 21 road traffic deaths per million inhabitants in 2022.

Second follows the Sweden with 22 deaths per million inhabitants.

In the European Union of 27, the overall level of road traffic mortality was 46 deaths per million inhabitants in 2022, when in 2012 there were 54 deaths per million.

High mortality rates are found in Romania and Serbia with 86 and 83 road traffic deaths per million inhabitants respectively.

In two countries, Malta and the Netherlands, road traffic mortality was higher in 2022 than in 2012.

Of the 32 countries that keep data on road accidents in Europe, only 13 countries recorded reduction to the deaths from traffic accidents in 2022, compared to 2021.

THE Slovenia took first place with a decrease of 25%, followed by Latvia with 23%, the Lithuania and Cyprus with 18%.

However, road traffic deaths increased in 19 countries in 2022 compared to 2021.

Overall in 2022 there were 20,678 deaths on EU roads, which means there is an increase of 4% compared to 2021. The EU has set itself a target of halving the number of road deaths by 2030, compared to figures from 2019. Road deaths in the EU27 in 2022 collectively fell by 9% compared to 2019.

In 2020 there was a large decrease in deaths close to 17% compared to 2019. But this result is related to travel restrictions across Europe due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 2021 also saw a steady decline of 13% compared to 2019, but the number of road deaths increased by 5% in 2020, affected by the gradual easing of travel restrictions and lockdowns across Europe.

A total of 40,987 more lives could have been saved if the annual reduction in accidents had been 6.7%. This is, after all, the rate needed to achieve the target of reducing deaths by 50% in the EU 10 years from now.