Bulgaria ranks first among the 27 countries in the EU in terms of the number of deaths in accidents per million inhabitants. This is indicated by the preliminary data of the European Commission for 2023.
Among the European countries, Bulgaria and Romania last year had the highest share of road accidents that ended in death. In our country, the victims are 82 per 1 million people, and in Romania the dead are 81 per million population, with an average value for the EU – 46.
The commission notes that in our country between 2022 and 2023, there is a decrease in the number of deaths on the road, but at the same time the number of the population has also decreased, which leads to worse statistical results.
In our country, the government claims that road safety is among its priorities. In the summer, amendments were adopted in the Criminal Code, which allow cars to be confiscated from drunk and drugged drivers. However, no organization had been made before this and therefore for a long time the new measure could not be effectively implemented and caused chaos.
An attempt was made to increase the collection of traffic fines. After years of fiddling, the Ministry of Internal Affairs finally gave drivers the ability to check for pending and unpaid fines, which immediately boosted penalty revenue.
At the end of its mandate, the current government reported a reduction in the number of road fatalities by 35 people. Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov explained that the introduced measures would give results in a few months, not “today for tomorrow”. In fact, more than six months have passed since the introduction of some of the measures, for example the confiscation of cars.
A total of around 20,400 people died on the EU’s roads last year, down 1% from 2022. The figures show that few Member States are on track to meet the EU and UN target of halving the number of road deaths roads by 2030
Compared to 2019 data, the EU saw a decrease of 2,360 deaths (10%), but no decrease was reported in Spain, France and Italy. In Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden there was even an increase in the number of people killed on the road.
The safest roads in Europe remain in Sweden (22 deaths per one million inhabitants) and Denmark (27).
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