Cyprus road fatality decreases by 8% in 2008, says EU report

Cyprus counts 42 deaths in road accidents in 2008, recording a decrease of about 8% compared to 2007. A report released by the European Transport Safety Council saw a decrease in road deaths by 8.5% in the EU27. Some 39,000 people were killed in 2008, 15,400 less than in 2001 but still far from the 27,000 deaths limit which the EU set for itself in its Road Safety Target for 2010.
Cyprus recorded 104 deaths per million residences and Greece 142, while the average in the community was 70 victims. Only Lithuania (148) and Romania (143) reordered a worst performance than Greece.
According to the report, the reduction in road deaths in 2008 can be partly attributed to reduced traffic volume following the recent economic recession and relatively high petrol prices earlier in the year. The strict measures against road accidents taken by several member states is consider to be another reason for the reduction.
Despite individual countries’ progress, the EU as a whole is likely to fail to reach its 2010 target to halve the number of deaths compared to 2001, since the reduction by the end of 2008 was only 28%.
Cyprus will probably fail to reach the EU target since the reduction in the number of deaths in the years 2001-2008 was 16%.
Estonia (-33%), Lithuania (-33%), Slovenia (-27%) and Latvia (-25%) achieved the best reductions in 2008 but still have some of the highest road death rates in the EU.