The roads in Malta are the third safest in the EU, although the reduction in road traffic fatalities is slower than in most other countries, a report issued yesterday shows.

The European Transport Council says Sweden, the UK and Malta have the safest roads, followed by The Netherlands, Germany and the Irish Republic.

The report, alas, was issued just a day before a man died when his car fell off the road near the Valley Road bridge in Msida last night (see separate story http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110622/local/man-dies-in-msida-crash.371764 ). 

Eight countries reduced traffic fatalities by more than 50% since 2001.
Latvia and Estonia achieved 61% reductions, while Lithuania achieved 58%. They are followed by Spain (55%), Luxembourg (54%), France (51%), Sweden (50%) and Slovenia (50%).

Portugal, Ireland, Germany, the UK, Italy, Slovakia and Belgium achieved reduction figures better than the 43% EU average.

Malta's road fatalities reduction since 2001 was 6%.  In actual terms, road deaths have fluctuated between 16 in 2001 to 10 in 2006 and 15 last year.

Malta was found to have the third lowest rate of road deaths relative to the population, after Sweden and the UK.

The percentage of serious injuries on the roads dropped by 1.6% in Malta.

Malta fared badly with regard to motorcyclists. Between 2001 and 2009 the number of motorcyclist deaths in Malta rose by  6.8% whereas the EU average dropped by 1.9%. Accidents involving pillion riders dropped in Malta by 7.4% compared to a drop of 0.3% in the EU.