Figure 2 shows the development of the actual number of road deaths in the Road Death Statistics according to mode of transport over the last ten years. Until some years ago, the number of road deaths among car occupants showed a considerable decline, to 187 in 2014, but from 2015 onwards the number increased to 237 in 2019; Thereafter, the number again decreased to 175 in 2021, the lowest number ever. The number of pedestrian road deaths also steadily declined until 2013, but since then the number has fluctuated around 50 to 60. In 2020 and 2021, however, fewer pedestrians were killed: just over 40 (43 in 2021). The general decline in the number of road deaths until 2013 is less obvious for other modes of transport.
The number of road deaths among cyclists does not seem to have decreased for years. Since 2000, the number of deaths among cyclists has not been as high as it was in 2020 (229). In 2021, the number of road deaths among cyclists amounted to 207. In 2020 and 2021, more cyclists than car occupants were killed in traffic. In 2017, cyclist road deaths outnumbered the road deaths among car occupants for the first time. Statistics Netherlands indicates that at least 80 (39%) of the cyclists killed were riding a pedelec. The road deaths in the category ‘mobility scooters/disability vehicles’ were all, as reported by Statistics Netherlands, mobility scooter riders as from 2009.
Figure 2. Number of road deaths in the Netherlands in the last ten years, according to mode of transport. The category (light-)mopeds also includes microcars and speed pedelecs. Source: Statistics Netherlands StatLine (Road Death Statistics)
