STA, 7 January 2019 - Road accidents in Slovenia last year resulted in a total of 92 deaths, which is 12% less than in the year before, when the number of recorded deaths on roads was the lowest in the last 60 years. Last year the number was actually below 100 for the first time ever on record.
Presenting the statistics on Monday, the Infrastructure Ministry noted that Slovenia was among the EU countries where traffic safety had improved the most in recent years.
The ministry, which will present the statistics in more detail at a press conference on Thursday, added that the number of people who sustained serious injuries in traffic accidents had also dropped last year to below 800.
Only in 1990 Slovenians roads claimed more than 500 lives, as well as in 1994, after which the number of road casualties started to decline gradually, to drop below 300 for the first time in 2001.
The number dropped below 200 for the first time in 2009, when the motorway network saw a major expansion and road toll stickers were introduced, while the number neared 100 in 2017, when a total of 104 casualties were recorded.
Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek said that despite the positive trends, these numbers should not be perceived as satisfactory, as both individuals and state institutions could do more for traffic safety.
Our goal must be a minimum number of road victims, and Slovenia should look up to countries like Sweden, which has no more than 25 deaths on roads per million people, as well as the UK, Netherlands and Estonia.
Four persons have already lost their lives on Slovenian roads in 2019, including two today alone in a severe accident near Kočevske Poljane in south-eastern Slovenia.
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