The Alpes-Maritimes firefighters during an intervention on a road accident (Illustration) -

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The health crisis and containment measures limited road traffic and saved lives in early 2020. This is indicated in the annual report published on Tuesday by the International Transport Forum (FIT).

"The number of accidents fell sharply during the first months of 2020, due in particular to the confinement imposed in many countries to curb the Covid-19 pandemic", underlines the FIT, which depends on the Organization for Cooperation and economic development (OECD).

New Zealand recorded 80 fewer deaths in April 2020 than in April 2019, Italy 79 fewer, South Africa 78, Morocco 65, and France 56.

Our flagship Road Safety Annual Report for 2020 is out!

It provides an overview of #roadsafety performance for 42 countries.

Based on latest #data, it describes recent developments and compares performance against the main road safety indicators ➡️ https://t.co/SsJMf3iEXA pic.twitter.com/unRYqpeJDH

- International #Transport Forum 🌎 (@ITF_Forum) October 27, 2020

Fewer accidents during confinement

"The strict containment measures applied to curb the circulation of the virus have caused a slowdown in the economy and in the mobility of people, and therefore in the number of road accidents," according to the report.

However, it seems that "the fall in the number of deaths is not proportional to the fall in traffic", and "some countries have recorded an increase in average speeds and more serious accidents", underlines the FIT.

Of the 29 countries analyzed, only Denmark, Sweden (which has not put containment in place) and the Netherlands have seen a slight increase in the number of road deaths.

Before the pandemic, most of the countries recorded in the OECD's international road traffic database were already seeing a drop in the number of road deaths.

More than a million deaths each year on the roads

The death toll fell by an average of 18.3% in 2018 compared to the average of the previous three years (excluding the highly populated United States, where the number has increased).

Slovenia, Ireland and Lithuania in particular have significantly improved their Road Safety figures.

The three most dangerous countries in the OECD (in number of accidents per 100,000 inhabitants) in 2018-2019 were South Africa, Costa Rica and Colombia.

More than 1.3 million people are killed on the world's roads each year, and tens of millions seriously injured.

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  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Road safety

  • Confinement

  • Road accident