Lowest road fatality rate in EU

Despite its high density of cars, Malta has the lowest rate of fatal road accidents in the European Union.

New figures released in Brussels show that in 2004, the islands had a rate of only 33 road deaths per million inhabitants compared to second-placed Netherlands with 49 and Sweden with 53.

Malta's figure is also a major improvement over the 45 deaths per million it had recorded in 1991.

Latvia have the most dangerous roads, with 222 deaths for every million inhabitants. It was followed by Lithuania (218 deaths), Cyprus (160) and Poland (150).

Across the EU there were 95 road accident deaths per million inhabitants, a substantial decline from the 162 registered in 1991.

Eurostat, however, noted that even if the rate has fallen in nearly all member states, the total number of deaths due to road accidents was more than 43,000 two years ago.

The data also show that during the period 1990 and 2004, traffic in Malta has became dramatically heavier, with the number of cars on the roads soaring by 102 per cent. While in 1990 there were 298 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants, two years ago there were 525. Eighty per cent of cars registered here had petrol engines.

Malta has one of the highest rates of cars per capita, with only Italy, Portugal and Germany having more. Italy tops the list with 581 for every thousand people.

Slovakia (222 cars per thousand inhabitants), Hungary (280) and Latvia (297) have the lowest ratios.