The risk of dying on Malta’s roads may be much slimmer than in other member states but little progress has been made over a decade to reduce the number of fatalities.

Statistics released in Brussels this week show the island only managed to cut deaths on the road by six per cent (down to 36 from 41 per million) between 2001-2010, the lowest drop in the EU after Romania, with three per cent.

The relief for those living on the island is that Malta last year had one of the lowest rate of road fatalities among member states – 36 per million. The average in the EU last year stood at 66 deaths per million and, despite their vast road network, incomparable to Malta’s, other countries – Sweden (28 per million), the UK (31) and the Netherlands (32) – achieved better records.

On an EU level, the number of road deaths was drastically cut across the majority of member states with fatalities in Latvia, Lithuania and Spain going down by more than half.

Malta is joined by Poland, Bulgaria and Romania at the other end of the scale with little or no progress.

The EU is aiming to cut the number of road fatalities by half by 2020 when compared to 2001.

The European Commission said it was very encouraging that nearly all member states managed to significantly reduce the number of road deaths but there was no room for complacency.

According to European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas, 100 people still die on Europe’s roads every day. “We have made good progress since 2001 and we have succeeded in saving nearly 100,000 lives but the number of fatalities and injuries on our roads is still unacceptable,” he said.

Initiatives proposed in the European Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020, adopted last July, range from setting higher standards for vehicle safety, to improving the training of road users and increasing the enforcement of road rules.