The World Health Organization (WHO) released the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015, which highlights that road traffic injuries are a major global health and development problem. This Status Report presents information on road safety from 180 countries out of a total of 195 WHO Member States, covering 6.97  billion people or 97% of the world’s population. It indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries.

NTUA has contributed actively to the country profile of Greece.

The Road Safety Unit of DG Move of the European Commission published recently the 2015 Edition of the EU Annual Road Accidents Report and the respective Infographics with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. The EU Annual Road Accidents Report is based on most recent disaggregate data for all EU countries from the CARE Database of the European Commission and consist of summary and cross-country comparative tables, figures and maps on key road safety topics for which data comparable across the EU counties are available.

The Road Safety Unit of DG Move of the European Commission published recently the Traffic Safety Basic Facts and the respective Infographics for key road safety issues in Europe, with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. The EU Traffic Safety Basic Facts are based on most recent disaggregate data for all EU countries from the CARE  Database of the European Commission and concern several key road safety issues like road users safety (Children, Young people, Young drivers, Elderly, Pedestrians, Cyclists, Gender), vehicle traffic safety (Motorcycles and mopeds, Passenger cars, Heavy goods vehicles and buses), road infrastructure safety (Motorways, Junctions, Urban areas, Roads outside urban areas) and accident type (Single vehicle accidents, Seasonality).

According to the ELSTAT final road accidents data for 2013 in Greece, 34% of road fatalities are power two wheelers, whereas 39% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. Accident severity is higher outside built-up areas for all transport modes.  

According to ELSTAT data, the majority of road accidents and fatalities occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. Accident severity is higher outside built up areas. 

According to ELSTAT data, most fatalities occur at daytime and at night with good street lighting inside built-up area, or with no street lighting outside built-up area. Accident severity is increased at night with no street lighting or poor street lighting. 

According to the ELSTAT final road accidents data for 2013, collisions with stopped vehicle and when running off the road are the two most common accident types outside built-up areas. At angle collisions and pedestrian accidents, side impact and rear end collisions are the most common accident types inside built-up areas. Accident severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas. 

According to ELSTAT data, among the 879 persons killed in Greece in 2013: 415 were outside built-up areas and 464 were inside built-up areas. 54% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than three quarters of road accidents and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is almost 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 

According to ELSTAT data, 879 persons were killed in Greece in 2013: 582 drivers, 146 passengers and 151 pedestrians. Male drivers account for 66% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers account for almost 50% of male driver fatalities and older people account for almost 50% of pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (8.7 fatalities per 100 accidents) and younger persons (4,5 fatalities per 100 accidents). 

Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991 – 2013 are summarised in a comprehensive Table (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2001, there are more than 1.000 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data a spectacular decrease (more than 60%) in road fatalities for young people and children is observed during the last decade, as well in fatalities outside urban areas, especially in junctions, when raining and in in accidents with heavy goods vehicles. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited for motorcyclists and cyclists, older drivers, women drivers and non resident riders, as well as in junctions inside urban areas. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently released the PIN Annual Report at the PIN Annual Conference on June 18th, 2015 in Brussels. In 2014, the worst annual reduction in EU road deaths since 2001 was observed.25,845 people were killed in the EU28 as a consequence of road collisions compared to 26,009 in 2013, representing a decrease of only 0.6%, compared with the decrease of 6.7% that is needed to reach the target for 2020 by equal annual reductions. Out of the 32 countries monitored by the PIN Programme, only 18 registered a drop in the number of road deaths between 2013 and 2014, 13 saw an increase while progress stagnated inone country.  At this ETSC PIN Annual Report, it was also highlighted what the EU and member states need to do to get progress back on track to reach the EU’s 2020 road fatalities’ reduction targets. NTUA contributed actively to this ETSC PIN Annual Report. 

According to provisional data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the number of road fatalities in 2014 continued to decrease significantly (-10%), whereas serious injuries decreased by 17%.  Road fatalities in Greece have decreased by an impressive 46% since 2009, whereas injury road accidents decreased by 21%.

The rate fatalities per number of vehicles (72 fatalities per million inhabitants) has also decreased in the same period by 46% making Greece to advance several steps among the EU countries, getting for the first time closer to the EU average (52) than to the least performing EU countries (90-105). This impressive decrease can be attributed to the joint effect of: a) more systematic initiatives from the Authorities (intensification of enforcement, construction and upgrade of 2.500 km of motorways, urban mobility plans) and several stakeholders (new vehicles, campaigns, training and monitoring) and b) the deep economic crisis, which brought new traffic patterns (less veh-kms, less risky drivers) and less speedy and aggressive driver behaviour. 

Ten countries have a better performance than the EU average.Greece is ranked 21st in 2013. Spain reached more than 70% reduction of the rate fatalities per population for the period 2002-2013. 

Car drivers are the largest road user group among road fatalities in all EU-23 countries. Together with car passengers they account for 46% of all fatalities. 

In EU-23, only 7% of road fatalities occurred in motorways. 55% of road fatalities occurred on non motorway rural roads. In Greece, more road fatalities occurred on urban than rural roads. 

Far more males than females are killed in road accidents in all EU-23 countries. Most road fatalities are within the 64+ age group. 

Road fatalities have decreased by more than 50% during the period 2002-2013, leading to 27.894 less road fatalities (2013) in comparison to 2002. Six countries ( ES, LV, SK, EE, LT,  PT) have reached reduction of more than 60% for the period 2001-2013. The performance of Greece in fatalities reduction is ranked 20th. 

According to ELSTAT data, come off the road and at angle collisions are the most common accident types outside built-up areas. At angle collisions and pedestrian accidents, side impact and rear end collisions are the most common accident types inside built-up areas. Accident severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas and almost 5 time higher at head-on collisions or when a pedestrian is involved. 

According to ELSTAT data, among the 988 persons killed in Greece in 2012: 489 were outside built-up areas and 499 were inside built-up areas. 52% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than three quarters of road accidents and half of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 

According to ELSTAT data, 988 persons were killed in Greece: 651 drivers, 167 passengers and 170 pedestrians.  Male drivers account for 66% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers account for almost 50% of male driver fatalities and older people account for almost 50% of pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7,6 fatalities per 100 accidents) and younger persons (4,0 fatalities per 100 accidents). 

Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991 – 2012 are summarised in a comprehensive Table (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2001, there are more than 1.000 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data an important decrease in road fatalities for young people is observed during the last decade, as well as a spectacular decrease in fatalities outside urban areas and in the number of people killed in accidents with Heavy Goods Vehicles. On the contrary fatalities decrease during the last decade is limited for people killed in motorways, non resident drivers and women drivers. 

According to the ELSTAT provisional data for 2013, road fatalities in Greece have decreased by 40% since 2009 , whereas serious injuries decreased by 22%. The rate fatalities per number of vehicles has decreased the same period by 42%. The recent deep economic crisis is a major factor which might explain this significant decrease in road fatalities in Greece. 

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2014 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings. 

The Global Road Safety Partnership Annual Report has recently been published. The report summarises in brief the actions taken by the Global Road Safety Partnership during the year 2013 to encourage and to increase road safety efforts within the framework of the Decade of Action and to build and share knowledge to achieve a reduction in road crash death and injury; and also demonstrates that national and global improvement is achievable. 

A new application ‘The Road Safety Atlas‘ has  been recently released by the Road Safety Unit of the European Commission, exploiting data from the CARE database, the EU database with disaggregate data. It is an application openly available with several detailed thematic maps on road fatalities and extended backround data available, including statistics per country and comparisons between countries. The application is available on desktop computers, laptop, mobile phones and tablets.  

The United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development has recently included road safety in the “Zero Draft” which proposed goals and targets on Sustainable Development for the Post 2015 Developemnet Agenda. At the proposed goal 11 on building inclusive, safe and sustainable cities and human settlements, a specific road safety goal is set: to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport for all and to expand public transport and improve road safety, with specific target to half the number of road fatalities by 2030. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has launched recently the PIN Annual Report at the PIN Annual Conference on June 18th, 2014 in Brussels. There were 9.800 fewer road deaths in the EU in 2011-2013 than in three years before in 2010, demonstrating that the European Union is almost on track to reach the 2020 target. Slovakia (-37%) tops the ranking for reduction in road deaths between 2010 and 2013, followed by Spain, Greece and Portugal with reductions of more than 30%. Across the EU28 road deaths have been cut by 18% between 2010 and 2013, equivalent to a 6.2% average annual reduction. The EU target for 2020 is therefore reachable if combined efforts at both national and EU level are stepped up. 

However, there is a clearly slower progress in reducing serious injuries on EU roads. George Yannis, NTUA Associate Professor, stated that “The difference in progress might be attributed to several factors which have a more important impact on deaths than on serious injuries, such as improved vehicle passive safety, speed management and better driver behaviour (leading to less injury accidents but many less deaths) and the improved post accident care systems across the EU.”

The DEKRA Vision Zero is an interactive map showing European cities and towns that achieve a total zero in road fatalities. An assessment of the accident statistics for 17 European countries from 2009 to 2012 by DEKRA Accident Research shows that a total of 462 towns and cities with over 50,000 inhabitants achieved a total of zero at least once in this period. The interactive map shows not only the 17 countries originally examined but is constantly being expanded and updated using further data as it becomes available. 

Three towns in Greece are among these 462 European cities with zero fatalities: Kalamaria and Neapoli-Sykies (Thessaloniki suburbs) and Zografou (Athens suburbs).

The European Commission has published for the first time a scoreboard on transport in the EU. It compares Member State performance in 22 transport-related categories and highlights for most of these categories the five top and bottom performers. The Netherlands and Germany top the scoreboard with high scores in 11 categories, followed by Sweden, the UK and Denmark. The aim of this first EU Transport Scoreboard is to give a snapshot of the diversity of Member State performance in transport matters across Europe and to help Member States identify shortcomings and define priorities for investment and policies.

Road fatalities indicators can be compared with all other transport indicators of all EU countries. 

Transport infographics on how EU policy has evolved in the last 5 years is now available by the European Commission. The key points are:

– 10 Passenger rights however you travel  

A Report on Transport for Health was recently published by theWorld Bank and the Institute for health metrics and evaluation. This Report contains data and analysis to quantify the health losses from road deaths and injuries worldwide, as part of the path-finding Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. The Report’s findings highlight the growth in road deaths and injuries globally, and their substantial impacts on maternal and child health, despite sustained reductions over the last three to four decades in high-income countries. This Transport for Health Report further reinforces the call for global action. 

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2013 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings. 

The 2012 Edition of the EU Road Safety Basic Fact Sheets is now available at the DaCoTA Road Safety Knowledge System as developed through a common methodology by the EU co-funded research projects DaCoTA and SafetyNet, within the framework of developing and enhancing the European Road Safety Observatory. The EU Road Safety Basic Fact Sheets are based on data from the CARE Database and consist of summary and cross-country comparative tables, figures and maps on key road safety topics for which data are available.

The EU Road Safety Basic Fact Sheets cover the following topics:

– Road user and vehicle: Children (aged <15), Youngsters (aged 15-17), Young people (aged 18-24),Elderly (aged >64), Pedestrians, Cyclists, Motorcycles and mopeds, Car occupants, Heavy goods vehicles and buses, Gender.

– Road environment: Motorways, Junctions, Urban areas, Roads outside urban areas,  Seasonality, Single vehicle accidents.

-General: Main figures.

According to the ELSTAT provisional data for 2012, road fatalities in Greece have decreased by 30% since 2009, whereas serious injuries decreased by 17%.

The rate fatalities per number of vehicles has decreased the same period by 31% as the vehicle fleet showed a marginal increase of just 2%. This rate is still high in comparison to the other EU countries, demonstrating the important potential for road casualty decrease in Greece if road safety measures are systematically implemented.

The recent deep economic crisis is a major factor which might explain this significant decrease in road fatalities in Greece. 

The European Commission has published road fatalities statistics based on provisional data for 2012 showing that road fatalities across the EU have decreased by 9% in 2012. According to these statistics, 2012 saw the lowest number of people killed in road traffic in EU countries since the first data were collected.  Country by country statistics show that the number of road deaths still varies greatly across the EU, from around 30 (UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark) to more than 90 (Latvia, Romania, Poland and Greece) deaths per million inhabitants. 

In the respective accompanying European Commission Road Safety Vademecum, the basic safety trends, statistics and challenges in the EU 2011-2012 are highlighted. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) released tables with detailed data for specific topics by country/area. 

These tables are part of the statistical annexes of the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013 and concern:  

– Road traffic deaths and proportion of deaths by road user

The World Health Organization (WHO) released Infographics onkey road safety issues, with data from the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013. 

These inforgraphics concern:

– road traffic injuries,

– drink-driving,

– speed,

– motorcycle helmets,

– seat belts,

– child restraints.

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a map basedinteractive tool with the estimated traffic death rate (per 100.000 population) for each country. This tool offers to the user the option to select the estimated traffic death rates by country, by region and for different income levels. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) released the Road Safety Country Profiles 2013.  In these Country Profiles, summary road safety data and information is provided for each of the 182 WHO countries, concering the institutional framework, the safer roads and mobility, the safer vehicles, the safer road users, the basic road safety data and the post-crash care.

At the Road Safety Country Profile for Greece, prepared with contribution from NTUA a comprehensive picture of road safety in Greece is provided. 

According to ELSTAT data, 1.141 persons were killed in Greece:713 drivers, 205 passengers and 223 pedestrians.  Male drivers account for almost 60% of all road fatalities in Greece. Young male drivers account for almost 50% of male driver fatalities and older people account for more than 50% of pedestrian fatalities. The higher accident severity was found in accidents involving older persons (7,7 fatalities per 100 accidents) and younger persons (4,1 fatalities per 100 accidents). 

According to ELSTAT data, among the 1.141 persons killed in Greece in 2011: 582 were outside built-up areas and 559 were inside built-up areas. 55% of road fatalities outside built-up area occurred on national roads. More than three quarters of road accidents and 49% of fatalities occurred inside built-up areas. However, accident severity is more than 4 times higher outside built-up areas in total. 

According to ELSTAT data, come off the road and at angle collisions are the most common accident types outside built-up areas. At angle collisions and pedestrian accidents, side impact and rear end collisions are the most common accident types inside built-up areas. Accident severity is 4 times higher outside built-up areas and almost 5 time higher at head-on collisions or when a pedestrian is involved. 

According to ELSTAT data, most fatalities occur at daytime and at night with good street lighting inside built-up area, or with no street lighting outside built-up area. Accident severity is increased at night with no street lighting or poor street lighting. 

According to ELSTAT data, the majority of road accidents and fatalities occur during clear sky, both inside and outside built-up area. However, accident severity is higher in rainy weather and other weather conditions especially outside built up areas.  

According to ELSTAT data, 27% of road fatalities are motorcycle riders, whereas half of road fatalities are passenger car occupants. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. Accident severity is higher outside built-up areas for all transport modes.  

Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991 – 2011 are summarised in a comprehensive Table (data source:ELSTAT. Since 2001, there are more than 700 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data an important decrease in road fatalities for young people is observed during the last decade, as well as a spectacular decrease in fatalities outside urban areas and in the number of people killed in accidents with HGV. On the contrary fatalities decrease during the last decade is limited for people kiled in motorways, non natianal drivers and women drivers. 

According to ELSTAT final data for 2011, road fatalities in Greecein 2011 decreased by 9% in relation to 2010, with the deep economic crisis having an impact on this decrease. During the last decade, road fatalities in Greece have decreased by 39%, whereas serious injuries decreased by 50%. The rate fatalities per number of vehicles has decreased the same period by 61%. This rate is still high in comparison to the other EU countries, explained also by the the high increase of the vehicle fleet in Greece during the same period (56%). The significant increase in Police enforcement was found correlated to the road fatalities decrease. 

Eighteen countries have a better performance than the EU average. Greece is ranked 26th in 2011. Two countries (LV, ES) reached more than 60% reduction of the rate fatalities per population. 

Road fatalities have decreased by almost 44% during the period 2002-2011, leading to 23.322 less road fatalities (2011) in comparison to 2002. Nine countries (LV, ES LT, HU, EE, PT, DK, CZ, IE) have reached reduction of more than 50% for the period 2001-2011. The performance of Greece in fatalities reduction is ranked 20th.