In 2017, 174,933 road accidents occurred in Italy resulting in death or injury with 3,378 deaths (within 30 days) and 246,750 injured.
After the decrease in the last year, the number of deaths increased again, compared to 2016 (+95 units, +2.9%).
Among the victims, the number of pedestrians (600, +5.3%) and mainly motorcyclists (735, +11.9%) increased, the passenger cars users (1.464, – 0.4%) were stable, while mopeds users (92, – 20.7%) and cyclists (254, – 7.6%) showed a decrease.
Road accidents and injuries recorded a slight decrease, respectively -0.5% and -1.0%, (Chart 1). Based on hospital discharge data, the number of serious injuries was equal to 17,309 and stable compared to 2016. The ratio between serious injuries and deaths reduced to 5.1 in 2017, from 5.3 in the previous year. The serious harmfulness rate, out of resident population, was equal to 28.6 serious injured per 100,000 inhabitants (40.1 for men and 17.7 for women).
The increase in the number of casualties in Italy was mainly due to the variation on motorways (including ring roads and motorways junctions) and rural roads (296 and 1,615 deaths, +8.0 and +4.5% over the previous year). A slighter increase was reported on urban roads (1,467 dead; +0.3%). An opposite trend was detected for the main municipalities, all in total, for which the number of deaths, in the built up area, decreased by 5.8%.
In the European Union, in 2017, the number of road accidents victims decreased slightly (-1.6% compared to 2016): 25,315 against 25,720 in 2016. Between 2017 and 2010 (benchmark year for the European Road Safety Strategy), deaths decreased by 19.9% at European level. Italy, with a result under the EU average, recorded a reduction of 17.9%. Every million inhabitants, in 2017, 49.7 deaths due to road accident in the EU28 were counted and 55.8 in Italy, which ranked 18th in the European classification (was 14th in 2016).
Distraction, failure to observe precedence rules and high speed (40.8% in total) were among the most frequent misbehaviors. The most sanctioned violations of the Road Code were, in fact, speed excess, failures to use safety devices and the use of mobile phone driving.
The year 2017 was characterised by a recovery of mobility; the new registrations increased by 7% compared to the previous year, the car fleet was 1.7%. Motorway journeys also increased by 2.2% compared to respect of 2016, with over 84 billion kilometres travelled.
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