Traffic accidents occur once every 17 minutes in Serbia: One day is especially risky

Illustration / Photo: Pixabay

Deceptive traffic safety indicators for 2020 show the lowest number of fatalities since official statistics are kept in Serbia, but also more children getting killed and approximately the same number of drivers and pedestrians, although due to a state of emergency and the virus control measures there was a lot less driving.

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The intensity of traffic on Serbian roads last year was significantly lower than usual, so we had 30,696 traffic accidents, which is 15 percent less than in 2019.

The data on the least number of deaths (492) per year in the last 20 years is also encouraging - it's also the lowest number since official records are kept, but that seems to be the only thing we can be "proud" of.

Black Friday

On average, there is a traffic accident somewhere in Serbia once every 17 minutes, most often on Fridays.

Approximately the same number of drivers and pedestrians were killed as the year before, when there were as many as 5,072 more accidents, and what's worst and most painful, 30 percent more children were killed than last year (13 vs. 10), while 983 were slightly or seriously injured in traffic accidents.

Traffic accident statistics in Serbia from 2016 until 2020; Year/Number of accidents/Number of deaths

More than half of child casualties died as passengers, mostly in their parents' cars, four children lost their lives as pedestrians, one on a bicycle, while one, believe it or not, died behind the wheel of a passenger vehicle.

Who are the casualties?

The attitude towards pedestrians, who made up one quarter (127) of the total number of all traffic accident victims in 2020 is very much so worrying, but still many more, almost a third of those who died in traffic accidents are drivers of passenger vehicles (155).

The answer to the question why this is the case is best given by the fact that last year saw as many as 900,000 traffic violations committed, and who knows how many more that have gone unreported. As always, most of those were the most dangerous offenses that often lead to lethal outcomes - speeding, in as many as 250,000 cases.

(Telegraf.rs)