Germany
The number of deaths and injuries in traffic is increasing
The number of traffic deaths rose slightly last year to 2,830
© Julian Stratenschulte / DPA
More accidents, more injuries, more deaths: traffic statistics show a negative trend in Germany in key areas.
The number of traffic deaths rose last year Germany increased. A total of 2,830 people died in traffic accidents – 1.5 percent or 42 people more than in the previous year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday in Wiesbaden, citing preliminary results. 364,900 people were injured in traffic accidents in 2023, 1.0 percent more than in 2022.
According to the information, the number of accidents was still below the values of 2019, the last year before the corona pandemic, which was associated with massive restrictions on public life at times. The number of traffic deaths last year was 7.1 percent lower than in 2019. The number of injuries in 2023 was five percent lower than in that year.
Significantly more pedestrians killed in traffic
The total number of 2.5 million registered accidents in 2023 represents an increase of 4.5 percent compared to the previous year, as the Federal Office announced. The number of accidents with property damage rose by five percent to 2.2 million, and the number of accidents with personal injuries rose by 0.4 percent to around 290,800. In the pre-Corona year of 2019, the police reported around 2.7 million accidents, including 300,000 with personal injuries.
In 2023, the most deaths in road traffic, based on the number of inhabitants, were in Saxony-Anhalt with 59 and in Lower Saxony with 52 per million inhabitants. The city states of Bremen with 18, Hamburg with 15 and Berlin with nine people died were far below the national figure of 34 deaths per million inhabitants. This also applies to North Rhine-Westphalia with 24 people killed. The national average in 2023 was 34 traffic deaths per million inhabitants.
The Federal Office has more detailed results for the period January to November 2023. Accordingly, there was a sharp increase of 12.3 percent in the number of pedestrians killed. However, there were significant declines compared to the same period last year in the number of passengers killed in freight vehicles, at minus 13.3 percent, and in the number of cyclists killed, at minus 7.6 percent.