Malta was the only country within the European Union to report an increase in road fatalities in the period between 2010 and 2017, figures released in Brussels show.
According to the data published by the European Commission, road fatalities on the island shot up by 46% in the period under review. All the other 27 member states reported a drop, ranging from -1% (The Netherlands) to -41% (Greece).
Malta registered a 17% drop in road deaths in 2017 when compared to the previous year.
Read: Malta crashes to bottom of EU road death table
The statistics were published just one day after Monday’s harrowing accident in Żurrieq when two tourists died and about 50 others were injured, some of them seriously, when a double-decker bus hit a tree branch.
The European Commission noted that the small population size meant that the figures fluctuated from year to year.
A fluctuation of a relatively small number of deaths will look like a huge jump in percentage terms when compared to large countries
“The number of deaths are small, so a fluctuation of a relatively small number of deaths will look like a huge jump in percentage terms when compared to large countries,” a spokesman for the European Transport Safety Council told the Times of Malta.
He said that, given small numbers, Malta could hold an independent investigation into every fatal collision, as happened in Finland.
Read: Road fatalities increased by 69 per cent in six years
“This approach would help the government better understand the under-lying causes of all the deaths on Maltese roads and respond accordingly,” the spokesman continued.
He noted that Malta did not have a national target or strategy aimed at reducing serious injuries.
With an average of 49 road fatalities per million inhabitants, European roads remained by far the safest in the world in 2017, the European Commission said.
A total of 25,300 people died on EU roads last year, 300 fewer than in 2016 and 6,200 below the 2010 figure. It is estimated that another 135,000 people were seriously injured last year.
The European Commission put the estimated socio-economic cost of road accidents at €120 billion a year.