Czech roads claim lowest number of lives since 1961

Ilustrační foto - Dopravní nehoda, záchranáři, policisté ilustrační foto.

published: 08.01.2013, 13:42 | updated: 08.01.2013 13:46:01

Prague - The total of 681 deaths on Czech roads in 2012, which is 26 fewer than in 2011, was the lowest from 1961 when the police introduced integral statistics, traffic police head Leos Trzil said today, adding that the tragic consequences of accidents were decreasing mainly in the past five years.

A total of 2986 people suffered severe injuries last year, which is 106 fewer than in 2011.

Trzil said, however, the number of traffic accidents, light injuries and material damage went up last year.

He said the most frequent cause of serious accidents is the drivers´ insufficient attention paid to traffic, failure to adapt the speed to the state of the road and failure to keep a sufficient distance between vehicles.

Deputy police president Tomas Kuzel said the biggest number of deaths was registered on other roads than motorways.

He said this was often due to the bad state of the road network.

Kuzel said half of the deaths of motorcyclists are due to other drivers not respecting their right of way.

Nine out of ten accidents involving cyclists end up in head injuries because they do not wear a helmet.

The worst years on Czech roads were 1969 (1758 fatalities) and 1994 (1473). Since 2007 (1123) the number of deaths has been decreasing.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz

Back