In 2019, 172,183 road accidents occurred in Italy resulting in death or injury, slightly down comparing with 2018 (-0.2%), with 3,173 deaths (within 30 days) and 241,384 injured (-0.6%).
The number of deaths decreased in respect to 2018 (-161 units, -4.8%), after the increase detected in 2017 and the slow decrease of the previous year.
Among the victims, the number of cyclists (253; +15.5%) and motorcyclists (698; +1.6 %) increased, while pedestrians (534;-12.7%), moped users (88; -18.5%), trucks occupants (137, -27.5%) and passenger cars users (1,411; – 0.8%) showed a decrease. The increase of victims among cyclists, mainly on primary roads, in builtup and outside urban area, is also associated to a growth in road accidents involving bicycles (+ 3.3%), to the spread of the two-wheels vehicles use for daily journeys, equal to 25% in 2019 and to the increase in bicycles sales, in 2019 7% more than in 2018.
The number of victims, in 2019, decreased for all road sites. A sharp drop is recorded for motorways (including ring roads and motorways junctions), equal to 6.1% (310 victims). On built-up-area roads the decrease of victims, in respect of 2018, is 5.0% (1,331 victims); a slighter decrease is shown, instead, on rural roads (-4.4%; 1,532 victims).
In the European Union (EU28, including United Kingdom), in 2019, the number of road accidents victims decreased (-2.3% compared to 2018): about 24,000 against 25.191 of 2018. In the comparison between 2019 and 2010 (benchmark year for road safety), the deceased decreased by 22% in Europe and 23% in Italy. Every million inhabitants, in 2019 there are 48.1 deaths due to road accidents in the EU28 and 52.6 in Italy, which is stable to the16th position in the European ranking.
Distraction, failure to observe precedence rules and high speed (38.2% in total) were among the most frequent misbehaviors. The violations of the Road Code increased the number, in 2019. The most sanctioned were the failure to comply with the signs, failures to use safety devices and the use of mobile phone driving. An increase of violations is shown for drunk driving too.
The 2019 data referred to motorized mobility, is stable in respect of 2018; the new registrations of vehicles increased by 0.8% (motorcycles + 5.8% and goods transport vehicles + 2.1%) compared to the previous year, while the vehicle fleet grows by 1.4%. Motorway journeys, over about 6,000 kilometers of road net, show a substantial stability (+ 0.6%), with over 84 billion km traveled and with an increase of 1.9%, compared to 2018, only for heavy goods vehicles, with around 20 billion vehicles-km. A strong increases is recorded for sustainable mobility, due to the growth of e-bike sales and the spread of other micro mobility categories.
The social cost of road accidents 2019, calculated on the basis of parameters indicated by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, at constant 2010 values, is equal to 16.9 billion euros, 1% of the national GDP. With a decrease of 21% from 2010, when the cost of road accidents was 21.4 billion euros 6,035 lives were saved in the period 2011-2019, while in economic terms they are estimated at over 9 billion of euros saved for the victims only and 31.2 billion in total.