News: As early as December, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) published a first extrapolation of the Accident calendar for 2019 published. Since Tuesday (14.07.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX) is the final accident calendar. We have summarized the most important findings for you.
Number of traffic fatalities lower than ever
Let's start with the good news. Even though the annual number of road accidents is now over 2,7 million, the number of people killed on the road is the lowest it has been in over 60 years. Last year, 3.046 people lost their lives on the roads. That's 229 fewer people than in 2018, down 7 percent. At the same time, the number of people injured fell by a good 3 percent to around 383.000 people.
Opposite trend among cyclists
The long-term comparison is interesting. Since 2010, the number of accidental deaths has actually fallen by 16,5 percent. The decline is particularly large due to the higher safety standards of modern vehicles among car occupants. With 1.364 fatalities, the number was 25,9 percent lower than in 2010.
The number of cases for pedestrians (417) and motorcyclists (605) has also fallen since 2010 by 12,4 percent and 14,7 percent respectively. Unfortunately, the situation is different for cyclists. Here the numbers have risen massively by 2010 percent since 16,8 (445). However, the number of cases has stabilized at this level for several years.
The devil is in the details
However, the rising numbers are not necessarily due to the fact that cycling itself has become more dangerous, but to the renaissance of the bicycle, especially in our cities. The accident calendar of the Federal Statistical Office allows further interesting conclusions.
For example, the accident figures provide information that the bicycle season has lengthened significantly in recent years, as more and more people use their bikes to commute to work. In addition, the bicycle accidents are concentrated during the week. Incidentally, the month with the highest number of bicycle accidents is June - so you have put the greatest risk behind you.