Romania remains in first place in the unfortunate list of European countries with the most deaths in road accidents. An expert in defensive driving explained the causes and how we could reduce the number of victims.
One of last year’s serious accidents. PHOTO ISU Suceava
In 2024, Romania registered 86 deaths per one million inhabitants, the main causes of serious accidents on the roads being the indiscipline of pedestrians, excessive speed and the indiscipline of cyclists, according to Digi24.
Although the Highway Code has been amended and tightened, new roundabouts have been set up, and mobile parapets have been installed on dangerous roads, experts say that, in the absence of works to modernize the infrastructure and road education, the number of accidents will remain high .
“It should be the human factor that adjusts. Let’s look at the cases during the summer, when every time there is smoke on the highway we have chain accidents. Autumn is coming, we have fog in winter, chain accidents again. This tells us that, psychologically, drivers from Romania they are not prepared, they do not know how to use these roads“, stated Emil Gâtej, defensive driving expert, to Digi24.
Between January and November 2024, over 1,300 people died, and 2,980 people were seriously injured on Romanian roads. Almost 700 pedestrians were responsible for accidents last year, and more than 600 accidents were caused by drivers who did not respect the legal speed limit.
However, compared to 2023, last year the number of road accidents and the number of injured people was lower, according to the Romanian Police.
