News of fatal road accidents are not rare in the Grand Duchy, but does that mean that our roads are not as safe as the ones in our neighbouring countries?
Eurostat, the European Statistical Office, published a document last weekend in which it compares member states in terms of fatal road accidents up until 2019, so before the beginning of the pandemic and the period of reduced traffic that it provoked.
22 people died in road accidents across the country in 2019. Eurostat took this number and adjusted it to an average population size of one million people for comparative reasons. The Office thus calculated that with that many people in Luxembourg, the number of fatalities would have been 36.
The Grand Duchy ranks eighth out of thirty in the list of nations with the lowest road fatality rates. Lichtenstein figures on top of the table with no deaths, followed by Norway (20 deaths), and Sweden (22 deaths). Germany reported one more death than Luxembourg in 2019 (37), while France and Belgium both saw much higher numbers (51 and 56 respectively).
Further reading: Stephen Lowe - Speeding! Fine?
However, the comparison of road injuries leaves the Grand Duchy in a less favourable position. With 2,111 people injured per one million inhabitants, Luxembourg ranks 15th out of 29. This equals almost twice as many as France (1,093), but only half as many as reported in Belgium and Germany, according to Eurostat.
To reach the ambitious goal of no road fatalities, the government has already implemented a number of measures to increase safety: a variety of speed cameras have been installed across the country, new road markings for motorcycles have been tested, and the national railway company CFL seeks to reduce the number of level crossings.
Furthermore, the government has launched a plan to reduce the response time of Luxembourg’s emergency services to a maximum of 15 minutes anywhere in the country.
