Road safety concern for France, Germany and UK

Preliminary figures for deaths and serious injuries suggest a worrying increase in casualty rates for the EU’s three largest countries. The data suggests that France, Germany and the UK may well see an increase in road deaths, ending 10 years of progress in steadily reducing casualty rates. According to early data from the UK Government, there has been a 3% increase in people killed and a 4% increase in people killed and seriously injured (KSI) during the year ending in June 2014.

This comes on top of a 1.7% increase in traffic. There has been a steady decline in road casualties over the last 10 years in the UK, with big drops noted in 2007 and 2010. But there is concern that cuts in traffic policing and enforcement could have resulted in a gain in the UK road casualty rate.

Data from France show an increase in the number killed of 4% for the first 10 months of this year, according to France’s national road safety observatory (ONISR). Pedestrians and cyclists made up the highest increase in deaths compared to other road users. Association Prévention Routière has said that the increasing use of mobile devices, notably with the rise of 4G technology, could be partly responsible for this gain in the casualty rate. Meanwhile Germany has reported a 2% increase in the number of people killed between January and September of 2014.