Following a considerable increase in the number of people killed on Belgian roads in the first-quarter of 2019, the third quarter has seen "better" days, according to the Vias institute's road safety barometer published on Tuesday.
However, due to the 372 road deaths so far in 2019 - compared to 440 for the whole of 2018 - the mobility minister, "has now accepted that the number of those killed on the roads will be up in 2019."
Taking the first quarter into account, the number of those killed "on the spot" has risen by 17% in the first nine months of the year, that is 372 versus 319 over the same period in 2018. The number of injured has on the other hand gone down a little, from 35,805 in the first nine months of 2018 to 34,815. Similarly, the number of accidents fell from 28,129 to 27,700.
"Even if things have got slightly better in the 3rd quarter, the record for the first nine months of the year is obviously tragic and sobering," mobility minister François Bellot commented. "We will have to wait until the end of the year to make a definitive evaluation, but it is already accepted that the number of those killed on the roads will be up in 2019, something we can only deplore."
The Brussels Times
