Road deaths: France becomes just another EU country

The number of people killed on French roads fell below 5,000 last year for the first time in more than four decades, confirming the regular declines seen in recent years, officials said on Tuesday.

Figures published by the European Union confirm that the number of road accident deaths per capita in France fell below the EU average for the first time in 2003, and improved further in 2004, the last year for which EU-wide figures are available.

But France still has some way to go to reach the levels seen in the Netherlands, Britain or the Scandinavian countries -- or in tiny Malta, one of the 10 states which joined the EU in 2004.

The official figures for 2004 give an EU-wide average of 95 deaths per million inhabitants over the year, down from 134 per million over the same 25 countries ten years earlier.

The equivalent figures for France are 93 deaths per million, as against 157 in 1994.

Top of the EU class is new EU member Malta, with only 33 deaths per million inhabitants in 2004, followed by The Netherlands, which had 50 fatalities per million.

The country with the largest number of road fatalities per capita is another new member, Latvia, which recorded 220 deaths per million inhabitants in 2004, and no less than 279 a decade earlier.

Herewith the number of dead per one million inhabitants for selected EU states in 2004. The figures in brackets are those for 1994.

Malta: 33

The Netherlands: 50

Sweden: 54

Britain: 56

Germany: 71

Finland: 72

Ireland: 89

France: 93

-- EU average: 95

Italy: 97

Spain: 113

Portugal: 125

Czech Republic: 135

Poland: 148

Greece: 153

Lithuania: 216

Latvia: 220

Source: EU Community Road Accident Database (CARE).

Some data shown in the EU tables come from national statistical publications. This is particularly true for new member-states.