April 4 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria and Romania were the two EU member states with the highest road fatality rates last year despite an overall decrease in the percentage of fatalities in road accidents in the EU, the European Commission said on Thursday.
Even though the number of road fatalities in Bulgaria fell 9% year-on-year to 88 per million inhabitants in 2018, it was the second highest in the EU, the Commission said in a statement citing preliminary data on road safety.
Romania recorded an improvement of 4% but still remained at the very bottom of the EU road fatalities statistics, with 96 deaths per million inhabitants.
Also near the bottom of the EU list stays Croatia with 77 road deaths per million inhabitants.
The report showed a significant improvement in Slovenia's road safety with a decrease in road deaths by 13%, to 44 per million inhabitants.
The average number of road deaths per million inhabitants in EU-28 fell 1% compared to 2017, to 25,100, the Commission said.
The EU aims to halve the number of deaths caused by road accidents by the end of 2020 in accordance with its EU Strategic Road Safety Action Plan published in May 2018 which includes risk mapping for roads and safety features in all new vehicles.