Romanian roads most dangerous in EU

Romania is the most dangerous place for driving in the EU by a massive margin, according to a survey of the 27 member states by the European Transport Safety Commission (ETSC)

July 2010 - From the Print Edition

The number of deaths in road collision is 44 per billion kilometres of roads travelled by cars – the next highest mortality rate in the EU is in Latvia, with 26 fatalities.
Compared to the safest nation in the EU, there are nine times as many chances of dying on the road in Romania as in Sweden.
In Romania 2,796 people died in road collisions in 2009, compared to 3,063 in 2008 and to 2,794 in 2007. There was in an eight per cent drop in 2009 compared to 2008, in line with international trends which saw lower car use due to the global GDP slump.
Romania also tops the list of the number of road deaths per one million inhabitants – which is 130, almost double the EU average 70.
The most common reason for road deaths in the EU are drink driving, the non-wearing of seat belts and speeding.
In Romania deaths by drink driving were 218 in 2009 – among the highest among 19 countries surveyed. “In Italy, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Finland and Estonia, developments in drink driving deaths have appreciably slowed down overall progress in reducing road deaths,” reads the ETSC report. “Governments of these countries need to attend to this trend and adopt a comprehensive strategy to tackle alcohol at the wheel.”
In Romania, transport police issued 51 speed tickets per 1,000 population in 2009 – this is around the EU average and compares to ten in Bulgaria and 558 in the Netherlands.
Seat belt wearing rates are not regularly collected in Romania.