In 2008, 36.721 people were killed in road traffic accidents throughout the EU-23, a reduction of almost one third since 1999 (30.1%). There is little difference in this positive development by gender overall in the EU-23: the reduction is 34.5% for females and 29.4% for males (see Figure 1 and Table 1). There are, however, many gender-related differences in individual countries. Most countries show a greater reduction for females than for males. The highest reductions above 50% for female fatalities are found in France, Spain and Slovenia. On the other hand, the number increased by 28% in Romania, and scarcely changed in Poland (1322 female fatalities in 1999 compared with 1321 in 2008). The biggest differences between the female and male reductions were in Slovakia (female reduction of 24.1%, male increase of 5.3%), Finland with a female reduction that was three times the male reduction (39.7% compared with 11.7%) and Slovenia, where the female reduction was nearly double the male reduction (50.7% compared with 26.1%). (Author/publisher)
Abstract