Nearly 20,000 people died on EU roads in 2024, and the European Commission said the current rate of improvement is not fast enough to meet the bloc’s 2030 road safety targets in a new progress report.
A total of 19,940 people were killed on Europe’s roads in 2024, down 12% compared with 2019, according to the Commission’s latest update on Monday.
The EU has a goal of halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030, but the annual reduction needed to hit that target is 4.6%.
Road crashes cost the EU economy about 2% of GDP, while up to 100,000 people each year suffer injuries described as life-changing.
“Every road death is a tragedy,” said Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, adding that efforts must accelerate.
What the Commission says is driving deaths — and what has worked
The mid-point review of the EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021–2030 listed key risk factors including excessive speed, drink-driving, distraction and not wearing seatbelts, the Commission said.
It also cited challenges such as limited enforcement capacity, constrained funding and fragmented governance structures.
The report also pointed to newer issues including wider use of e-scooters and other personal mobility devices, an ageing population and the gradual introduction of automated vehicles, according to the Commission’s findings.
Some countries have cut fatalities faster than others since 2019, with Poland, Lithuania and Slovenia recording reductions of 33% to 35%, the Commission said.
The report cited Spain’s national 30 km/h speed limit in urban centres, France’s automated traffic camera network and Denmark’s awareness campaigns as examples of national measures it described as successful.
Member states were urged to follow up their first safety assessment of road networks with systematic programmes to eliminate crash “black spots” — locations with a concentration of serious collisions.
Progress towards the 2030 targets will be monitored through EU road safety datasets including the CARE database and the European Road Safety Observatory.
