Romania registered, during the interval of 2010-2020, a 31% reduction in the number of people who died in road accidents, from 2,377 to 1,646.
According to a press release sent by IGPR (General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police) to AGERPRES on Monday, the number is comparable to the European average of 37%. The number of serious road accidents has gone down by 32.2%, and the number of people with serious injuries has decreased by 35.6%.
"In the year 2020, on Romanian public roads, there have been 6,273 serious road accidents, road events that caused the death of 1,646 people, 5,484 people were seriously injured and 2,155 people were lightly wounded. When comparing with 2019, in the year 2020 there were 2,369 fewer serious road accidents (-27.4%), while the number of injured people (deceased or seriously injured) in such events was smaller by 2,859 people (-28.6%)," IGPR informs.
In 2020, the largest number of serious road accidents was registered in the rural area, namely 2,457 events, 39.2% of the year's total.
In the last 10 years the most serious road accidents occurred in the urban area, but the fewest number of casualties were recorded here - less than a quarter of the total, Agerpres.ro informs.
The most accentuated reduction of the number of victims was in the case of motorcycles, mopeds and scooters - 49% fewer victims among this category of traffic participants in 2020, when comparing to 2010.
During the analyzed period, the most serious road accidents happened because of the fault of automobile drivers. On average, for 66% of these, the main culprit was an automobile driver, IGPR indicates.
Furthermore, automobile drivers were responsible for the death of approximately two thirds of the total deceased persons in road accidents and 72% of seriously injured victims.