WESTERN BALKANS – In 2023, 1,261 people lost their lives in road crashes across the Western Balkans, marking a 1.2% increase from the previous year, with 73.4 road deaths per million inhabitants. This contrasts the EU’s average of 46 road deaths per million inhabitants.
Comparing to 2022, across the region, the biggest increase has been reported by Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Serbia is the only regional partner to report a decrease in the number of road deaths in 2023.
When it comes to the Transport Community’s observing participants, an increase in the number of fatalities has been reported by Georgia (442 road deaths in 2023, compared to 430 in 2022), while the Republic of Moldova reported a decrease (197 road deaths in 2023, compared to 217 in 2022).
The data within the report are the official data provided by the regional partners and observing participants. These data vary in their quality and methodology due to various levels of alignment with the EU standards.
The road traffic crashes may be an everyday occurrence, but they could be preventable and resulting in fewer fatalities and seriously injured. In achieving this, an improved policy-making processes are needed.
The Transport Community’s Road Safety Acton Plan promotes safety management, safer infrastructure, and protection of road users. Its actions strive to support the “zero deaths” objective and encourage regional sharing of best practices in this regard.
On the other hand, the Safe System approach, a core feature of the Decade of Action in Road Safety for 2021-2030 and the EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030, recognises that road transport is a complex system and places safety at its core. It also points out that humans, vehicles and road infrastructure must interact in a way that ensures a high level of safety.
To build upon the above-mentioned and work towards achieving the Vision 0, the Transport Community, its regional partners and observing participants, have agreed on the new set of actions which are outlined in the Next Generation Action Plan for Road Safety to be adopted by the Transport Community’s Ministerial Council this December in Belgrade.
Download the report by clicking here.
Background
Focusing on improving transport across the region, the Transport Community also focuses on the road safety. With its Action Plan for Road Safety, the Transport Community aims to create a safer road environment that protects all road users and significantly reduces the number of road traffic injuries and fatalities across the region. To access the Action Plan, please click here.
Furthermore, with its Western Balkans Road Safety Observatory (WBRSO), the Transport Community has set a platform offering a tailored solution for monitoring road safety targets and contributing to the improvement and harmonisation road safety data across the region.
Improved knowledge on road safety performance is a crucial element in designing road safety strategies and measuring the progress towards reducing the number of road casualties.
WBRSO is a regional platform for exchange of information and strategies, action plans and initiatives in road safety and the collection of timely, objective and reliable information that effectively contributes to achieving a reduction in road traffic casualties. It builds knowledge on the improvement of the local crash data systems and harmonisation of the data with CADAS protocol. One of the main goals of the WBRSO is to ensure road safety data in the Western Balkans reaches enough quality and breadth of coverage to facilitate a smooth transition into EU’s CARE (Community Road Accident) database.
To access WBRSO, please click here.
