Road fatalities in Germany increase sharply, reversing a 20-year trend

According to Germany's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, the number of people who died in road traffic accidents in Germany increased by 9.9 per cent to 4,009 in 2011 compared to 2010 - the first time in 20 years that the number of fatalities has risen. Paradoxically, the overall number of road traffic accidents registered by the police was down by 2.1 per cent (to 2.36 million in 2011) compared to 2010.
July 10, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
According to Germany's Federal Statistics Office, 6163 Destatis, the number of people who died in road traffic accidents in Germany increased by 9.9 per cent to 4,009 in 2011 compared to 2010 - the first time in 20 years that the number of fatalities has risen. Paradoxically, the overall number of road traffic accidents registered by the police was down by 2.1 per cent (to 2.36 million in 2011) compared to 2010.

The majority of fatal accidents, 60.9 per cent, happened on out of town country roads and this sector the largest percentage increase – 10.6 per cent - over the previous year.

‘Unsuitable speed’ was still the most common fault in 2011 but the absolute number of accidents due to inappropriate speed actually decreased in 2011. However, there were 7.1 per cent more of deaths in these accidents: nearly 40 per cent of all traffic fatalities last year were due to excessive speed of drivers involved in accidents.

The statistics also reveal an increase of 17 per cent in the number of alcohol related fatalities in accidents, the first time this has increased since 2002, and which related to 10 per cent of all fatalities.

The only major improvement recorded was that the number of children who died in road accidents in 2011 was down 17.3 per cent over the previous year.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Data holds the key to combating VRU casualties
    May 8, 2015
    Accident analysis software can help authorities identify common causes and make best use of their budgets, as Will Baron explains. More than 1.2 million people die on the world’s roads each year and according to the World Health Organisation, half of these are pedestrians and vulnerable road users (those whose vehicle does not have a protective shell, such as motorcyclists and cyclists). While much has been done to improve road safety and cut the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads, a great d
    Read More
  • Self-driving car safety perspectives
    June 2, 2015
    At yesterday’s Opening Plenary, Chris Urmson’s keynote speech dealt with the reality of driverless cars on our roads. By far and away their greatest benefit to mankind will be the potential to achieve an incredible saving of life and injury on the roads, as Urmson, director of the Google Self-Driving Car program, revealed to delegates. In response to an Associated Press article last month disclosing that self-driving cars have been involved in four accidents in the state of California, Urmson revealed th
    Read More
  • Singapore to implement enforcement systems
    January 4, 2013
    Traffic police in Singapore are planning to implement an average speed enforcement system, to be trialled along the pan-island expressway and Changi coast road. The average speed enforcement system works by recording the time a vehicle takes to travel between two points to calculate its average speed, which the police say means that speeding motorists cannot evade the law even if they slow down before or speed up after the cameras. Speed detectors placed at the start and end points - to be determined in c
    Read More
  • Indonesia targets road death reduction
    April 17, 2012
    The government of Indonesia says it is working to reduce the number of road deaths in the country by 50 per cent by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2035. To achieve this, the government will be upgrading the road infrastructure as well as introducing a road safety programme that will run over a ten-year and 25-year plans, starting this year. The programme will be overseen by the National Planning Development Board with involvement of the national police as well as the public works, transportation, national educa
    Read More

Highlighted Content