Greece retains road death lead
Not only does Greece top the European Union chart of road deaths in relation to the country’s population, but it has achieved the lowest reduction in deadly accidents over a 10-year period among all EU members, according to data made public in Brussels yesterday. The figures published by the European Commission refer to the decade between 1991 and 2001, the year when the government launched a five-year road safety campaign that has already started to pay off. Nearly 1,900 people died on Greek roads in 2001, which amounts to 180 deaths per million inhabitants. The corresponding figure for 1991 was 207 deaths per million. The EU average in 2001 was 105 deaths per million, down from 153 in 1991. Some 23,600 people were killed in road accidents between 1991 and 2001 in Greece, which has posted the worst figures in the EU every year since 1999. Last year, according to police figures, there was an overall reduction of 14.9 percent in road accidents in Greece, and a 13.6 percent drop in deaths.
