Bulgaria and Romania with the highest number of road accident victims in EU

Bulgaria and Romania are the two countries in the EU with the highest number of victims of road accidents, according to new data from the European agency Eurostat. It is led by Romania with 96 road accident victims per million inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria with 90, Poland (77) and Croatia (73).

The lowest road death rates in 2019 were regidstered in Sweden (22 road accident victims per million inhabitants), Ireland (29), Malta (32), the Netherlands and Denmark (both 34 each), ahead of Germany and Spain. (both 37).

In 2019, the number of persons killed in road traffic accidents decreased by 2.5% compared to 2018. The total number of people who died in road accidents in the EU was 22 756, of which 44% were passenger car occupants, 20% pedestrians, 16% on motorcycles, 9% on bicycles and 11% in other categories (including light and heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, mopeds and other vehicles).

For fatal accidents with passenger cars, Bulgaria is again the record holder with the highest number of deaths per million inhabitants. The 49.7 deaths per million inhabitants registered in 2019 are just over 48.4 in 2018.

At the other end of the scale, Sweden has 10.1 deaths per million inhabitants in passenger car accidents.

With regard to other vehicles, Bulgaria registered 0.4% deaths from road accidents by buses, 3.9% by bicycles, 0.3% by mopeds, 0.7% by motorcycles, 22% by pedestrians - again second here after Romania, which has 37% pedestrian deaths per million inhabitants. However, the percentage in Bulgaria in terms of deaths in road accidents from motor vehicles for transportation of goods is zero.

There has been a downward trend over the last 10 years in the number of road traffic victims in the EU. Compared with 2009, the number of road fatalities has fallen by more than 10 000 persons (-31%), from almost 33 000 to less than 23 000 in 2019.

In 2019, there were in total 51 road traffic victims per million inhabitants in the EU as a whole. /BGNES