There were 14,378 road accidents in 2018, a slight decrease of 4.2 per cent compared to a year earlier.

The National Statistics Office reported on Monday that there were 371 injuries – down by 8.4 per cent – of which 40 drivers, 16 passengers, 23 pedestrians/others and one cyclist were grievously hurt.

There were 18 fatalities last year, compared with 19 a year earlier.

Cars were responsible for 59.3 per cent of the injuries, followed by motorcycles (29.9 per cent) and goods-carrying vehicles (6.7 per cent).

Of the fatalities, the two involving a driver both happened to be motorcyclists.

A total of four cyclists were hit by passenger cars, one of whom suffered grievous injuries while the rest suffered slight/insignificant injuries.

Another cyclist was hit by a goods-carrying vehicle and suffered slight injuries.

Just over two out of every three injuries were caused when two vehicles collided, the NSO said.

Birkirkara emerged as the most likely place for collisions, with 354 cases. Marsa and Qormi were next in the list with 186 and 173 reported accidents respectively.