Road death toll keeps on falling
The number of deaths on Swiss roads has dropped again, decreasing by nearly ten per cent in 2006 with tougher legislation continuing to make an impact.
But the number of seriously injured remained unchanged. Alcohol and excessive speed were still key causes of road accidents, according to figures published on Tuesday.
The Federal Statistics Office said that the number of people killed in driving accidents last year was 370, 39 fewer than in 2005. This latest drop comes after a 20 per cent decrease in 2005, when new legislation had an immediate impact on driving habits, say experts.
The blood-alcohol limit was dropped from 0.8 per thousand to 0.5 per thousand and random checks by police also contributed to making the roads safer.
“This regular drop in fatalities is a real progress,” said Rolf Moning of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention. “But the number of serious injuries means there is still plenty of work to be done.”
Police reports show that speeding was the cause of a quarter of all 340 deadly accidents. The physical state of the driver or pedestrian was also often a factor, as well as people being distracted or not giving way.
There was a significant decrease in alcohol playing a role in lethal accidents. It was only involved in 16 per cent of all cases, whereas between 2000 and 2005, this figure stood at 20 per cent.
It was, however, a factor in 14 per cent of serious injuries sustained in road accidents and ten per cent of less serious ones, according to the statistics office.
Alcohol awareness
Moning says people know about the blood-alcohol limit.
“The numbers might be stable because either the police are paying more attention to alcohol as a factor in accidents that lead to injuries, or it could be that people are driving with levels slightly above the limit – not life-threatening but enough to get you into an accident,” he told swissinfo.
Among those killed last year, 42 per cent were drivers, 21 per cent pedestrians, 19 per cent motorcyclists and nine per cent cyclists.
Recent figures on transport habits show that motorbikes are used for just two per cent of all distances travelled in Switzerland. This means that their users are 18 times more likely to be killed on the road than someone inside a vehicle.
Road safety seems to be apparently better in Switzerland than in neighbouring countries. With only 49 road deaths per million inhabitants in 2006, its position is more favourable than Germany – 62 per million – France (74), Austria (88) or Italy (92 in 2005).
The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention has however called for further improvements to road safety. Possible measures include a zero blood-alcohol limit for new drivers, identification and improvement of danger zones and maintaining the number of police checks.
For its part, the main Swiss car lobby group, Touring Club Switzerland, said on Tuesday that the fall in the number of deaths was due to better road safety measures. It said information campaigns and road awareness training had also played a role.
swissinfo with agencies
In 2006, the number of deaths on Swiss roads dropped by 9.5% to 370. In 1971, this figure exceeded 1,700.
Neighbouring France recorded 4,703 road fatalities in 2006 – 11.6% less than in 2005. The decrease started in 1973 (16,000 deaths). Overall in the past 5 years the number of deaths has fallen by 43%.
In Germany the number of such deaths fell by 500 to 5,360 in 2005. In 1980 there were around 15,000 deaths on the roads.
Austria had 370 deaths in 2006, a third less than in 1980.
In Italy, the number of deaths was 5,400 in 2005, 5% less than in 2004.
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