Road fatalities back on the increase[de] 

Until now, the EU seemed to be making progress towards reaching its target of halving road fatalities by 2010, as agreed upon in the Commission's European Road Safety Action Plan in 2001. This trend seems to have reversed in the first half of 2007 in a majority of member states, with Denmark and Finland the worst performers. Figures for the latter even rose by 40% in recent months, according to the FIA survey, released on 14 September. 

In Poland and the Czech Republic, road fatalities increased by over 14% and even Germany, which has been one of the best performers in Europe, experienced a sudden rise of eight percent in road deaths in the first six months of this year. 

Another worrying figure stems from the UK, where the number of children killed on Britain's roads has so far risen by 13% in 2007 and by as much as 20% over the last year, according to the British Department for Transport. 

Overall, however, the UK belonged to a small group of countries - including Spain and Italy - which have reported reductions. 

Although the FIA states that these preliminary numbers only offer a "snapshot" and do not represent official EU statistics, it said that they were "sufficiently compelling to urge all governments and organisations involved in road safety to redouble their efforts to improve safety on Europe's roads." 

According to Werner Kraus, Chairman of the FIA Eurocouncil, "the successful reduction in the number of road deaths in recent years should not be an excuse for complacency." 

Alerted by the recent increases in road casualties, the FIA called for a number of measures to be introduced, including the mandatory inclusion of Electronic Stability Control in all new motor vehicles, further initiatives to encourage the use of seatbelts, improvements in road design and efforts to target driver's behaviour through education and enforcement. 

European experts do not yet know precisely what has caused the dramatic results, but highlight the negative influence of warm weather conditions compared with 2006 as one potential cause. 

With motorcycle fatalities also increasing sharply – in Austria and Germany figures rose by more than 60% - the warm weather certainly serves as one explanatory factor by bringing more motorcyclists onto the roads, according to member clubs.