Romania has the highest mortality rate in the EU as a proportion of its population, the study by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) shows.
The report indicates that Romanian roads are eight times more dangerous than their Swedish counterparts.
The ETSC is a Brussels-based, independent, non profit-making organisation dedicated to reducing the number and severity of transport accidents in Europe.
The mortality rate on Romanian roads is 130 people per million inhabitants per year, in a country whose population is 21.5 million. The second-worst case is Greece with 129 people per million, followed by Poland (120) and Bulgaria (118).
At the opposite extreme, the lowest mortality rates were registered in Sweden (39) and the UK (40).
In 2009, 2,796 people died on Romanian roads, compared to 2,454 in 2001, representing an increase of 14%.
Romania's poor showing in terms of road safety is hardly surprising considering the bad reputation of its roads (see EurActiv 28/04/10 and 'Background').
The Romanian national road network of 81,693 km has just 22,865 km of modern roads. Indeed, half of the roads that have been modernised already need rehabilitation, a report published last year revealed.
The EU has set itself the goal of reducing the annual death toll on its roads from 54,400 in 2001 to 27,000 in 2010.
In 2009, almost 35,000 people were killed on roads across the EU-27, the report reveals.
The best performers in improving road safety are Latvia, Spain, Portugal and Estonia - all of which reduced their death toll by over 50% - followed by France and Lithuania.
2009 appears to be a record-breaking year as the number of deaths fell by 11% compared to 2008. Slovakia (36%), Lithuania (26%), Denmark (25%) and Estonia (24%) achieved the greatest reductions in 2009.
For the first time ever, the EU-10 (the 10 mostly East European countries which joined the Union in 2004), achieved a better year-to-year reduction (18%) than the EU-15 (the old member states, where the reduction was 8%).
