While the number of fatalities has fallen in Romania, the eastern European country’s figures remain shockingly high at 1,864 deaths in 2019. This makes it officially the deadliest place to drive in Europe.
With 628 people dying on its roads and a population of just seven million, Bulgaria is ranked the third-worst country in the world and the European Union member with the second-highest road fatality rate.
Another eastern European country with a high road fatality rate is Serbia, which had 534 deaths on its roads in 2019 from a population of around 8.7 million. This is the equivalent of 77 road deaths per million population, a slight improvement on 78 in 2018.
As a major east-west transit route for freight, Poland's roads see heavy traffic, no doubt a factor the 2,904 deaths in 2019. A mid-sized European country of 37.8 million people, Poland makes regular upgrades to its road networks, however, some of the main routes between major towns and cities can be narrow and poorly surfaced, which makes driving after dark particularly challenging.
In 2019, 297 people lost their lives on Croatian roads, meaning there were 73 deaths per million people. While those figures are well above the EU average they represent the country’s lowest-ever road fatality rate.
Perhaps surprisingly, given its low population of 4.7 million people, high-quality road infrastructure and strict law enforcement, New Zealand is ranked the seventh most dangerous country for road safety.
Road safety has improved in Latvia in recent years, with the Baltic country (population 1.9 million) experiencing 132 deaths in 2019 or 69 per million of the population. While that was down compared to 77 per million in 2018, Latvia remains in the top 10 worst countries worldwide according to the UK's Department of Transport data.
The small Baltic country of 2.7 million people recorded 184 road deaths in 2019 – that's 11 more than 2018 when the country reported its lowest figure. But, looking at Lithuania's long-term trend, it has seen a dramatic improvement recently with the number of deaths on roads decreasing by 41% since 2010.
Despite having one of Europe’s worst road safety records, Greece registered its lowest-ever fatalities in 2019 with 696 deaths. This was a 0.9% decline from 2018, when 700 were recorded. With the number of road deaths reducing by 54% since 2010, Greece oversaw the largest fall in the EU.