North Macedonia Fails to Lower Road Death Rate

They compared well to the deadliest year in a while, 2013, which saw 199 road deaths.

However, over a decade, the country has made no real progress and is just back where it started.

According to European Commission data on road deaths in the 28 member states for last year, 25,100 people died on European roads in 2018, representing a rate of 49 casualties per 1 million people.

In North Macedonia, the death rate is 65 casualties per 1 million people, which is 32 percent above the EU average.

The countries with the most dangerous roads for 2018 were Romania (96 casualties per million) and Bulgaria (88 casualties).

Roads were safest in Denmark (30 deaths per million) and in Britain (28 deaths).

Only five EU countries had higher death tolls per million people than North Macedonia.

But, unlike North Macedonia, some of these EU member states have significantly improved their road safety and lowered their death rates.

Greece, Lithuania, Estonia and Luxembourg have all lowered their road death rates over this period by between 40 and 45 percent.

The EU average is 21 percent lower compared to the beginning of the decade. Bulgaria and Romania are stuck at the bottom of the list, but have still seen improvements of about 20 per cent.

Causing a collision that results in human casualties is punishable by law in North Macedonia, and those found guilty face sentences of one to five years in prison.

But after BIRN analyzed court rulings in the country over 12 months last year, it found that courts rarely sentenced anyone responsible for a road death to more than two years in jail.

In most cases, those found guilty of causing serious collisions were released on parole or sentenced to up to one year in prison.<...